


Clear Skies Above

by Nemrut



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Gym Circuit, Kanto and Johto, Pikachu - Freeform, Teambuilding, nidoran female
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2018-12-09 01:44:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11659005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemrut/pseuds/Nemrut
Summary: The day Lyn received her trainer's license she lost to a magmar in the exam, bailed on her family and watched her estranged sister's pikachu cripple two pokemon in a friendly match. At least Sabrina also offered her a sponsorship.  There were worse ways to start your pokemon journey.





	1. Chapter 1 - Lyn 1

Summary:  The day Lyn received her trainer's license she lost to a magmar in the exam, bailed on her family and watched her estranged sister's pikachu cripple two pokemon in a friendly match. At least Sabrina also offered her a sponsorship. There were worse ways to start your pokemon journey.

=============================================================

 

The white board nailed to the wall in front of her had the pictures of her classmates attached to the top rows. Under each picture was a list of their pokemon. What type they were, what attacks they had used during the two years they’d all been together and other information Lyn found relevant. Most importantly, a big question mark in each column, for things that they had kept secret or had learned since their last class a week ago.

These were going to be a few of her opponents today and she’d been staring at this board all night and most of the morning. Left out were the people she just didn’t know who would also be taking the exam, bringing pokemon and tricks she had no real way of preparing herself for.

It was equal parts exciting and dreadful.

A quick, hot shower and hour earlier had been all the reprise she had granted herself. That had removed all traces of tiredness and feeling clean was always a nice feeling.

The current Saffron City gym had a reputation for being one of the toughest in the whole circuit. The leader had proved herself by obliterating the previous official gym of the city and claiming their position in the Pokemon League as her own, despite them having defended that title for decades in the face of a type disadvantage.

That didn’t mean that it was any more difficult per se to get the trainers license there. In theory, at least, as technically speaking the requirements should be the same everywhere. That said, while the process itself didn't involve Sabrina until the end, it would still be her judgment that counted.

 _And Sabrina didn't suffer any fools._ The gym leader was notorious for her low passing percentage. It made Lyn’s stomach queasy to think about it, but she wouldn't want it any other way.

Browsing the Saffron City gym thread earlier hadn't helped. Once she had filtered through the incessant complaining and insults, the experiences the hundreds of posters had shared didn't paint the most promising picture for those who sought either the trainers license or the badge. Many were resentful and bitter on their losses and failures while that very same thing amused and delighted many others, which wasn’t an environment to get much insight out of.

And all that said, the whiteboard with her classmates wasn’t the only one in her room. She had a second one that had only three names on it, but instead those names were of trainers who would crush her as she was now.  Trainers that she would have to beat at some point. After all, the license exam was only the first step on her journey, the starting line. Being champion was a long way off, but the Saffron Youth Tournament next month?

If she got her license, that was within her reach. A tournament for trainers under the age of twenty, for those who wanted to prove themselves and win both the prize money and the opportunity to get sponsored by either Surge, Whitney or Erika. Gym leaders who very rarely did such a thing and which was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

_Not Sabrina, unfortunately._

Winning the SYT would open a lot of doors. It would also draw strong, young trainers from all over. Trainers like Arianna or Pullo, trainers who probably could have won a badge or two by now if having one wouldn’t have disqualified them from the tournament.

“When’s your match?”

Lyn looked over from her white board to see her mother – step-mother -  entering her room.

Elyse Winter was a tall, blonde woman with a homely face. She had gained some extra weight after Amy’s birth, and stress had put wrinkles of worry on her face, but Lyn hoped to look half as good as her step-mother once she reached that point in her life and if the countless times their neighbor knocked on their door with some slapdash excuse were anything to go by, he most definitely agreed. Now in her early 40s, she had married Lyn’s father three years after his divorce from Lyn’s mother.

“Later in the day. The theoretical part comes first,” Lyn said. She had turned around to face Elyse. “The tournament should be starting before noon.”

Elyse glanced at the clock that hung over the door. “It’s just after seven now,” Lyn said.

“Would you mind if we watched?” Elyse was rubbing her left elbow but was still smiling. “Because I would love to be there and so would Amara.”  She paused for a bit. “Your father as well, but he said he'd be busy with writing.”

 _Or drinking._ Lyn shrugged. “Sure, if you want. It’s not going to be that interesting though. Only a bunch of beginners fighting.”

“Oh, don’t say that, I’m sure you‘re going to be amazing!” Elyse said with a lot more vigor than Lyn thought the situation warranted.

“Cassie might be there as well, though, if the Bullet Train is on time,” Lyn said.

Elyse didn’t frown, but the smile fell from her face. “How nice, I haven’t seen Cassandra for years.” Her voice lowered, now more solemn.  “Are you sure you can’t stay a few more days? Tomorrow is so soon. Amara and I would love to spend a few days with her as well.”

“We’ve been planning this for a while, I’m not going to change the plan that drastically on the fly.”

This time, she did frown. “Oh. Well, if that’s what you want, of course.  I can prepare some snacks for you two then, for the road. You girls need proper nutrition”

“You don’t need to bother, Elyse.”

“It's never a bother and I want to.” She smiled, which didn’t hide the sadness in her face.  “And come down for breakfast, dear. Amara was rather hungry earlier, and she desperately wants her older sister. It’s all she has been talking about, really.”

Lyn had forgotten about breakfast and Elyse insisted on all three of them being present before they began eating.

 _It'll be only the two of them from now on._ She should feel a bit bad about that, but she needed to go. This would be for their sake as well. “I’m sorry, be down in a minute.”

Elyse nodded and left the room to go downstairs. Someone had to keep an eye on Amara and the pokemon downstairs weren't always up to the task. Lyn wasn’t too worried though. Amara - or Amy - was usually well behaved in that regard, especially for a six-year-old. Too bad she had charmed Lyn's team.

_Jolt will miss her a lot._

She turned her PC off and went downstairs to find that breakfast was ready on the table. Amy was in her seat with Jolt hovering next to her and they were playing their usual weird game of tag. Amy tried to poke the magnemite, but it floated out of reach at the last second every time, its hollow hum of amusement and silly expression, alongside the spinning of its magnets making her giggle. Empy, the nidoran, was already digging into her bowl with pokefood alongside Bella, the sunflora. Carrie was nowhere in sight, which led to one conclusion.

 _Can’t forget to feed her before we go._ Abras may not do much outside of sleeping but they did need regular meals nonetheless. “Hey Amy,” she greeted her younger half-sister who turned to her with a big smile.

“Morning Lyn!” she yelled. Jolt used the momentary distraction to float to the small electric station in the far end of the kitchen. Magnemites and a few other electric types preferred electrical currents as nourishment. Some could consume food, but Jolt needed to recharge at stations like these.

She had already packed the portable one alongside everything else she needed for her journey. Her backpack was ready to go.

“How are you feeling?” Elyse asked between pouring everyone some orange juice.

“Okay.”

“Lyn is going to win against everyone today!” The one person more confident than Elyse seemed to be her little sister.

Elyse smiled at Amy and then at Lyn. “Yes, I’m sure she’ll do great today. We’ll be cheering you on extra hard, dear.”

Lyn nodded and forced a smile on her face. “Thanks. I’m a bit a nervous but I should be able to pass the exam.”

“Do your best, and I have no doubt that you will pass,” said Elyse. "We know you can do it."

It was a relief that from then on Elyse steered the breakfast conversation back to Amy. The six-year old immediately began to gush about what had happened in kindergarten yesterday. One of the caretakers had brought in a new marill which had in return captured the hearts of the kids on the spot. With marills being the adorable critters that they were, Lyn wasn't surprised.

She finished her meal in a hurry, thanked Elyse and left the room. It didn’t take her long to find Carrie. She had teleported herself into Elyse’s wardrobe. It was one of her three favorite spots in the house to sleep in. Luckily for all of them, Lyn knew her step-mom didn’t mind and was rather fond of the abra.

_I need to make things easier for her, once I come back._

Waking her up wasn’t difficult. Carrie had long gotten used to her presence. It takes a while for abras to do that and not teleport away immediately, even after getting captured. Lyn was lucky in that regard. Receiving her education in Saffron with its extensive focus on psychic pokemon had helped. They had a lot of tips to give with regards to training a psychic pokemon. For people who didn’t know what to do, trying to take care of a freshly captured abra was a nightmare. If you weren’t prepared, the abra would just teleport away when it was first released. Good luck getting that pokemon back.

With a grunt, Lyn carried Carrie to her room and gave her a few snacks, watching her eat them on her bed. She let out a small sigh and shook her arms. Carrie wasn’t exactly a lightweight.

She knew she'd be at a certain disadvantage later today. She'd have only two pokemon to fight with whereas most participants would have one more to choose from. Until she evolved, Carrie was only able to eat, sleep and teleport.

_Still, it will have to be enough._

It should be, Lyn had faith in Empy and especially in Jolt. Magnemites weren’t super-rare or anything but not that many people used them for some reason. As such, fewer people had experience dealing with them. That and the fact that they were solid fighters was an advantage of sorts.

Another quick check on the clock showed that it was almost eight. She still had more than an hour, but she wanted to be there on time and it was a bit of a walk.

Satisfied that Carrie had eaten up, she returned her to her ball. She grabbed her backpack and left her room. Empy and Jolt were still lounging in the kitchen, while Elyse was doing the dishes. On a normal day, she would have long since dropped off Amy at the kindergarten before going to work herself. For today though, it seemed she had already taken the day off. Her boss was fickle when it came to giving employees a day off and Elyse had still gone ahead and done just that. Just for the chance that Lyn would be okay with Elyse watching her match.

Lyn didn’t quite know how to feel about that. She wasn't too psyched about spectators, least of all to have Elyse and Amy possibly see her fail. But it was…nice, she supposed. They were doing what no one else in her family was going to do. That deserved more than the awkwardness that Lyn was giving them.

“I’m going out now.” Empy and Jolt had perked up at that and hurried to her. She returned Jolt to its pokeball. Empy squeaked at her, happy that she could remain outside. She and Jolt took turns but nidorans needed more movement than magnemites. It was important that Empy got to walk as much as she could. It would also be somewhat of a warm-up for the later fights.

_Wish I could have more than one pokemon out in the city._

That had to wait a while, though. One needed a good reason to have two of them out, and because you felt like it unfortunately didn’t count unless one was a gym leader. Few people got the permission for that.

“Okay, honey,” Elyse said, coming over and giving Lyn a quick, heartfelt hug. The younger girl hesitated for a few seconds before returning it, harder than she had wanted but she found herself holding onto Elyse for a good five seconds before she let go. “Good luck and do your best.”

“Sure,” mumbled Lyn and with a quick good-bye to Amy, she rushed out of the door, glad to be out of the house.

She took a deep breath once outside and started to walk. She passed the lone oak tree in the Winter family garden which housed Fred the forretress. Elyse had owned him for years and all he did was hang in the tree, not doing anything. Both seemed content with their dynamic and neither Lyn nor Amy could understand why. It seemed so boring.

Soon, she had left their property behind. She had walked this path hundreds of times in the last few years, ever since she started studying at the Gym for her trainer’s license when she had turned fifteen. That was the same day she'd gotten Empy as her starter.

Truth to be told, she hadn’t been too psyched at first. While nidoqueen wasn’t a pushover by any means, she hadn’t been in any of the line-ups for her future pokemon teams she had played around with. However, she had found a partner in Empy that had quickly turned out to be a like-minded soul.

The city was full of people as always. Countless humans of all walks of life hurried to work. Many had their pokemon at their side, filling the streets in-between the large buildings. One of the interesting things about Saffron City was the variety of pokemon on its streets. As the capital and the biggest city of Kanto, they got people and pokemon from all over the continent. So, one was just as likely to meet those pokemon most common to Kanto as one was some of the more exotic species. You didn’t see a ribombee every day, for example, like that one guy had following him down the street.

Many of them came for Sliph Co., a veritable titan of commerce and innovation in the world. It was an economic and political heavy weight in Saffron and had a lot of people under its employ. While it was the biggest firm by a good margin, it was not the only one present in Saffron. Where it really stood out from the rest was in the tall, black and chrome headquarters at the center of the city. Cutting edge technology had gone into constructing a gargantuan skyscraper towering above all others, with the company name proudly visible in giant letters from anywhere you stood bellow.

Lyn got to pass it on her way and it was always buzzing with busy employees skittering in and out of its big entrance, with doors large enough to classify as gate of glass, steel and velvet.

The guards and their pokemon - an arcanine, an alakazam and a venosaur - were observing everyone entering with keen senses. There had been a break-in a few years back and ever since then, the security had increased.

Now and then, you could see a police officer wandering the streets. Once or twice, the occasional ranger would rush through, always in a hurry. The cars, buses and bikes were loud and obnoxious in a lot of ways. Their smell, their noise, their speed and frequency. Thanks to the years of living in the city, Empy, and most other pokemon, had long since gotten used to that.

She would also quite often see flyers and posters pinned to various walls, telephone poles and shopping windows, proclaiming the date for the SYT. DJ Mary, the radio show host from Goldenrod, was apparently going to be the announcer.

Saffron City had stricter rules on releasing pokemon on its streets because of that. There were a few that normal people and even licensed trainers just weren’t allowed to release. One had to have the appropriate license for it. You couldn’t release an onix in any city, for example. You needed to be a gym leader to do it or a company that was building something.

Otherwise, you had to be mindful of the people and property around you.

In about twenty minutes, they reached the gym. Standing in front of its doors, it was steadfastly progressive, a huge dome made from inter-lapping segments the color of soft lilac. Twelve tapering spikes extended from the dome down into the ground, six to each side of the entrance, serving as both support and foreboding warning.  It was one of the largest buildings in the city, dwarfing the surrounding housing and companies. Extensive renovations had been made starting fifteen years ago.

It had been the most modern gym in Kanto ever since. The Fighting Dojo, the previous city gym, wasn't even a third of its size. An older building, almost antique, it had been a temple with a shrine in the back, stemming to over a hundred years ago. It was a relic of older times.

The gym teachers had claimed that the reason the Saffron City gym was rebuilt there, right next to the Dojo, wasn't to shame anyone. Rather, it was a reminder to never get complacent with your training. A rival was always waiting for you to slip up. Winning once wasn't enough, as anyone could fluke into a victory. You had to keep winning, again, and again, until there was no doubt remaining. So far, they had.

As such, the rivalry between those two institutions had never waned.

“This is it. How are you feeling?” she asked her pokemon and she saw Empy give a strong nod, meeting her eyes. The squeak she let out was energetic and Lyn knew that her partner was ready for the battles ahead. Some would be opponents they had beaten and a few they had previously lost to. Some they would fight for the first time.

But it wouldn’t matter. They would win.

“Remember our training, as long as you stay in motion, and get closer, that pressure will make them nervous.”

Empy’s nose twitched and she lightly bumped her head against Lyn’s leg, impatience showing.

It was bad form to roam a gym with pokemon out of their pokeballs, so Lyn recalled Empy with a smile. People were working with all kinds of pokemon in there. Since one never knew which, it was best to be careful and not cause any complications.

With that thought in mind, she opened the gym gates. The reception hall was large, with a tired, balding man sitting in front of his computer. Albert was the longest working person in the gym; he had seen three leaders during his time. He'd been here before this had even been the official gym of Saffron City, before Sabrina.

Lyn gave him a quick nod and hurried through the many halls to the classroom.

\------------------------------

The theoretical part, answering a bunch of questions for an hour and a half, wasn't difficult. Lyn knew that anyone taking the training business seriously had better be able to answer those. There had been two questions to stump the candidates on meaningless details, though. Lyn hadn't wasted any more time on them than she had to. Generally speaking, few people who had stuck to this for years failed this part.

_Those who did deserved to fail._

No, the difficult part came with the mini-tournament afterwards, between all sixteen hopeful trainers taking the exam today.

“You don’t have to win to get the trainer’s license and the pokedex,” said Florence. She was a gym official and one of Sabrina’s top trainers. In her late twenties, she was also one of the tallest people working in the gym. She wore her long brown hair tied back in a casual ponytail, and the standard gym uniform stretched over her muscular, darkly tanned figure.  

Sabrina rarely talked with the budding trainers, leaving that to her staff.  She was watching, though, right now, of that Lyn had no doubt.

It would be her decision, after all. Few people had the authorization to grant a trainer license.

"But you’ll have to put on a show worth watching. You’ve gotta prove to us that you understand what it means to train and _lead_ a pokemon in battle. That said, if we find that your actions are unacceptable, then even a win won't give you the license. There’s no such thing as room for trash or idiots in the battling world. That's true for _all_ battles. Whether it's here for the license, in tournaments or much later for the badge. If you screw up, you’re out, and generally I’ll do the throwing unless you’ve got shit luck and Sabrina does it herself.”

Florence was sort of an anomaly in the gym. The trainers employed tended to favor psychic pokemon, for obvious reasons and yet despite her personal focus on a more physical based combat, she had managed to impress Sabrina long ago and had been working as one of her top people for years now, effectively serving as her right-hand woman. Her metagross was a beast.

_Besides, everyone had a healthy respect for the woman who could lift her own larvitar._

It wasn’t anything they hadn’t heard before though. Florence or whoever taught for that day had delivered a lecture like this a few times in the last three months. Usually whenever an instructor felt the class needed to hear this again, which was more often than anyone had liked.

That said, not everyone in this exam had been a student here. Besides Lyn, there were eight others who had been in the same class. The other seven had either taken private lessons or had moved to Saffron recently, or else had come today just for the exam.

While most exams were happening on this day, not all gyms had them. Some were a week later. Not everyone was the same age either. While Lyn was eighteen and so were five of her classmates and one of the outsiders, the rest were a few years older. One of the candidates, Bryce, was nearing thirty.

Just as Florence was going to continue, the sound an obnoxious popsong interrupted her. Annoyed, she reached for her pokecom and checked the caller ID. “Of course, it’s Marjane. I’ve got to take this, wait a minute guys.” With that, she turned around and walked a bit to the side before accepting the call.

“Oh man, that guy looks tough,” said Nigel to Vyle, both of them Lyn’s classmates, loud enough for her to hear him. Nigel was tall, with short black hair and dark skin, and a fondness for flying pokemon. Vyle was short, not even coming to Nigel's shoulders, with long, wavy brown hair, a pale complexion and glasses. They'd been dating for a few weeks and if Lyn had understood things correctly they'd be traveling together if things went well. He wasn’t wrong though. The boy, one of those whose name she didn’t know, looked to be the same age as them and dressed in particularly high-quality clothes.

That wasn’t what was remarkable though. That would be the fact that one of the three poke balls on his belt was blue with red dots. A great ball, rather than three regular ones that beginners like them usually had.

Whatever he had inside that thing was likely to be stronger than anything else here today.

Vyle seemed to agree. She was looking annoyed as she nodded. Her eyes were still glued to his great ball. “Heard about guys like that. Could've taken the exam at whatever private big shot thing they studied at until now. Instead they take part in exams like this to make a big splash by beating the idiots there.”

“Why not graduate with his other big shot friends?” Nigel asked, a frown on his face.

“Because the assumption is that his chances to win against his big shot friends is less than his chances against us,” Lyn said before Vyle could. She looked surprised and nodded.

“Probably. A bit cowardly, if you ask me.”

"A gamble," Lyn answered, a frown on her face.

"What do you mean?" asked Vyle.

Nigel seemed to have understood though. "I'm guessing people at those schools have better pokemon, yeah? But aren't really better at using them, right? That's what you want to say?"

Lyn nodded.

“Richer folk can get the pokemon that need a higher upkeep. Which beginner could afford to feed a snorlax for example?”

“I barely make ends meet as it is," lamented Vyle. “Imagine having to feed _that_.”

“Man, that’s bumming me out.” Nigel groaned as he ran both of his hands through his hair. “Still, no reason to give up though.”

“Of course not,” Vyle agreed, crossing her arms. “A pokemon is only as good as the trainer. For all we know, he simply didn’t have the chops to graduate where he was and had to come here.”

“Or wherever he was before doesn’t have the authority to grant licenses, since few places can do so besides an official Gym.” Nigel’s voice wasn’t that confident but Lyn and Vyle nodded.

“Could also be that those big-shot institutions are not as prestigious as getting a license from someone like Sabrina. Certainly worth a lot more coming from here than some league washout, right?” Vyle suggested.

“Well, either way, we'll see if his gamble pays off. Should be fun,” Lyn stated.

Vyle seemed amused. “What's got you so chatty today? Usually you don't gossip with us like this.”

"Usually, you two don't talk about anything interesting."

Nigel laughed as Vyle rolled her eyes. "Harsh, Raine. Harsh. I can't believe I'll miss you," she said.

"I can’t believe it either. You're more masochistic than you led me to believe, Vyle," said Lyn, "if you're truly going to miss your regular defeats."

Vyle laughed and lightly bumped her shoulder against Lyn. “I’m going to somewhat miss you,” she corrected, grinning, something that made Nigel chortle harder.

Vyle and Nigel were solid enough trainers but Lyn didn’t have the impression that either one of them truly pursued the same path as her. Nigel had a bigger interest in studying pokemon, flying pokemon in particular and was probably hoping to get a spot in Falkner’s gym. Vyle did like battling, but she hadn’t said a word about the SYT.

One of the few people of her class that Lyn knew had set her eyes on the same goal as her would be Mara. Her charmander was well trained and strong and there was no such thing as a guaranteed win against her. She was standing with her own group of friends, shooting the occasional glance at the trainer with the great ball, until she looked over and their eyes met. Mara gave her a slow nod, which Lyn returned.

_I hope I fight her._

Florence, until now distracted with a phone call, focused her attention back on the group.

“Okay, people. You know the rules. Two pokemon each." She looked at the screen in her hand that was the size of a book. "We even got our first pair. First ones up are Lyn and Faze. Go through the door and give us a good fight.”

The trainer they had been talking about started moving.  
_  
Speak of the devil._  
  
"Good luck," said Nigel and patted her lightly on the shoulder. “Do your best.”  
  
"Have fun," Vyle said, a small smile on her lips, no doubt remembering Lyn's earlier words.  
  
"Oh, I will."  
  
Lyn nodded at Florence and followed Faze, walking through the door. After entering the indoor arena, she stepped forward to the fighting field. The arena they were fighting in was one of the smaller ones at the gym. It was a mixed field. It had several smaller, connected pockets of water, each the size of a kiddie pool. Around it was plenty of land with sand, grass, trees and rocks covering it. That way, it allowed for a multitude of pokemon to fight at their best. All around the fighting field, there were seats for roughly only a hundred spectators. They had designed this room for either training or fights of low importance such as this.   
  
The big gym battles happened in the arena that could host thousands. It even had expensive cameras fixed all over. The fan remixes of some of these battles had become popular over the years.  
  
The audience for this was already present. Not even twenty people. There wouldn’t be any cameras here today. It was rare for something spectacular to happen at one of these qualification tournaments.   
  
Most of the time, such as today, only family members cared about this. Lyn knew that at times scouts from big firms like Silph Co. came to look for some promising talent. Sponsors and news could find their way here, but they needed to already have an interest in someone. Today, it was just two bored looking reporters sitting in their designated seats. Each one had a smart phone ready, just in case.  
  
Lyn hoped to give them something to see.  
  
She also saw Elyse and Amy in the stands who were waving their hands at her, but she didn't bother waving back. Instead, she settled for a quick smile and a nod of her head.  
  
The contestants took their spots on opposing sides. They nodded to each other and grabbed their first pokeballs and released their pokemon.  
  
Empy and an horsea materialized on the field, Empy on the land, immediately shuffling around, whereas the horsea found itself in the water.  
  
That was an unfortunate matchup.   
_  
How annoying that I can’t switch out Empy for Jolt._  
  
Still, it was winnable.   
  
The horsea was quick and agile but not that strong. It also wasn't the most durable of pokemon. Then again, neither was Empy. Not yet. Still, Lyn would reckon that she could take more damage than the enemy for now but while both pokemon got more and more impressive with each evolution, at the end of horsea’s evolutionary tree waited a dragon type.  
  
_A great ball and a dragon type right at the start, how much luck can one person have?_  
  
“Water gun,” ordered Faze and the horsea shot out a stream of water from its mouth. Empy was able to dodge by jumping to the side without needing to wait for an instruction.   
  
Never get hit was a command in play at all times. Horsea fired a few more in rapid succession and Empy was able to avoid all but the last one, which hit her in the side.   
  
She winced, and the force of the impact pushed her back a few inches. Empy had avoided a head shot though.  
  
“Growl!” Lyn said, her eyes darting between the pokemon and her enemy. Empy belted out a loud, piercing cry. Given her size, it came out as more of a hiss, but it did its job and intimidated the horsea, making it flinch.  
  
It looked wary now, swimming on the spot, its focus on Empy, who was trotting nearer, making use of horseas temporary weakness.  
  
This was something they had practiced. Always try to get close to the enemy. Long range was bad for them.  
  
While there were no type advantages and disadvantages in this match, it was still in favor of the horsea. It was fast and could dart in-between the pools and take shots at Empy from a distance. Sooner or later, it would get a few more hits in. In turn, it'd be difficult for Empy to attack horsea back. She was lacking any and all long-distance attacks for now and it was hard to reach something in the water with her short legs.  
  
It wasn't impossible though. A small smile found its way on her face. She looked at Faze, to see he was looking confident, his arms crossed and he was looking intently at the pokemon.  
  
“Dash forward!”  
  
Empy obeyed and closed the distance with surprising speed.  
  
But not fast enough.  
  
“Dive and water gun!” came the order to horsea from Faze the next beat and it disappeared from view.  
  
That wasn’t unexpected. But there was always a drawback with this tactic. While it did shield the pokemon from enemy attacks, it also stopped any and all communication between trainer and pokemon.  
  
In a lot of ways, it was a double-edged sword, and Lyn knew how to exploit it. She didn’t bother looking at the pools themselves to look for the horsea. The movement of bigger water pokemon might stir the surface and betray their location, but small ones like horsea didn't. Lyn knew that trainers liked to give instructions on where to emerge beforehand, for exactly situations like this. Preplanned strategies. It was the sensible thing to do, and Lyn had done the same.  
  
But sometimes, the trainers forgot that they themselves were a part of the match as well. Lyn saw that Faze was looking at the pool to the left of Empy.  
  
It wasn’t guaranteed. It might well be the case that Faze was trying to trick her by looking at the wrong pool. She didn’t know enough about him to tell.   
  
_Overestimating an enemy can be just as dangerous as underestimating them._   
  
She had to take the gamble.  
  
Either it paid off here and they got a few important hits in or they had bared their back to a water gun. It was better than getting whittled down without ever being able to fight back.  
  
“Empy, turn left and rush to the edge of the pool. Double kick the second it breaches the surface.”  
  
Faze flinched, a frown appearing on his face. He watched as Empy positioned herself, waiting for the horsea to come out.   
  
It didn’t take too long. A few seconds later, the horsea burst through the surface. Its cheeks were already bulging and ready to fire its water gun. To its and Faze's dismay it found itself face to rear as a stubby leg smashed into its face. Empy, her head turned to watch for movement, had reacted before the horsea could.  
  
Faze's desperate order had no chance of reaching his pokemon in time. Horsea’s were fast but they weren’t that fast, least of all when the kick was coming at point blank range.  
  
It was lucky for Lyn and Empy that it had come up so close to the edge. It made sense, the closer the distance, the higher the chances of hitting.  
  
_We have to finish this with this attack though. We might not get another chance to close the distance like this._  
  
The first kick slammed right in the middle of its forehead. The kick was strong. Horsea released a high-pitched howl, but the blow also pushed it back a few inches from Empy, and the second kick only grazed the trunk

  
Lyn had an idea that was as risky as it was stupid.  
  
“Jump backwards!”  
  
Empy didn't hesitate for a second and leaped. Horsea, still dazed from the first kick, was unable to react to this unexpected move and Empy slammed into it. Her toxic spines dug themselves into horsea's small body before Empy landed in the water with a small splash.  
  
“Get out now.”  
  
Empy paddled hastily towards the land and it was lucky that it was not far. Unfortunately, the horsea, while poisoned, had now recovered enough to attack. And while the distance was short, Empy wasn't a fast swimmer.   
  
“Water gun!” its trainer roared, and the water attack slammed against the back of Empy’s head. Lyn winced. That had hurt. Empy yowled in agony but the attack had also given her the necessary push to climb out of the water.   
  
Wincing, she turned around, waiting for the next attack, and Lyn was relieved to see that it was still good to battle and more importantly, enthusiastic to.  
  
“Smokescreen and then water gun,” Faze gave the next order. A stoic look had replaced his frown.   
  
The small pokemon covered the pool it was in with white smoke in seconds. While it made it a bit more difficult to aim, it didn’t make it impossible. It did make it a lot harder for Empy to dodge though. Not to mention that it could dive and emerge from another pool and attack from there. This time Lyn didn’t think she would get a convenient forewarning. Only an idiot would make the same mistake twice.  
  
A stream of water shot out of the white smoke and grazed Empy as she was able to avoid the worst of it. The second shot hit her right in the cheek, tough, making her let out another painful squeak.  
  
“Leap right!” Lyn ordered and Empy obeyed, dodging the third shot by a narrow margin. Lyn shot out a torrent of orders, alternating in which direction to jump, allowing the nidoran to avoid the next few shots. She barely managed and she was grazed once or twice but she did avoid the worst.

 _The training is paying off._   
  
There was one thing Lyn noticed, however. _The water gun is getting weaker._  
  
So the reckless jump had paid off and the poison was doing its job. Lyn’s lips curved into a satisfied smile. Now, the ball was in Faze’s court. Lyn was content to run down the clock, to wait until the poison knocked out the water pokemon. The scanners scattered over the battlefield were analyzing the whole time to make sure no pokemon took permanent damage. Besides, a small, light body like horsea couldn’t take that much poison to begin with.   
  
The bad thing was, Lyn could see that Empy wasn’t doing that hot either. The first water gun had nailed her good in the ribs and all the movement since then hadn’t done her any favors. Not to mention the other hit to her head.

However, she had faith in Empy and she knew her partner enough that she would hate to be pulled out right now. And between the two right now, Empy had the advantage.  
  
The smoke screen was clearing up by now, revealing a panting horsea, its eyelids half closed. The noises it made were mewls of pain. Florence took one look at her and stopped the fight.  
  
“Round's over, this is Lyn’s win.”  
  
Faze winced. “Thanks, little guy,” he said after he had the horsea return into his pokeball. Florence, meanwhile, was giving Empy a critical look and checked something on the electronic pad in her hand.  
  
“Well, nidoran can continue but I’ll be keeping an eye on her in the next round,” she said after a few seconds.

_That is unfortunate._

Lyn had seen that Empy was not in a good condition anymore. She hoped she'd at least get a few hits in on the next pokemon. Best case, she'd be able to poison whatever Faze was sending out before going down herself. Empy still had a bit of fuel in her tank, so they would at least face the new pokemon.

“Do you keep your nidoran in?”

Lyn looked at Empy, who had turned around and squeaked in determination and scratched the ground with one of her hindlegs.

 _Atta, girl._ “Yeah.”  
  
“Okay.” She turned to Faze. “Round two begins now, choose your next pokemon.”  
  
Lyn was observing Faze. His hand had reached first to the normal pokeball on his belt. It hovered over it for a second or two before he grimaced and reached for the great ball right next to it.  
  
_Here it comes_. The smile had returned on Lyn’s face, the excitement of facing whatever was in there was racing through her veins. She could feel her blood pumping. Maybe it was a second evolution? With his uncertainty over what to send out, Empy might actually have a chance here. But it was better to be prepared in either case. “Brace yourself,” she told her pokemon.  
  
She watched as Empy’s muscles tensed, lowering her center of gravity, ready to dash at any second.   
  
Lyn was concentrating on Faze, and to her surprise, he still had a bitter expression on his face. He looked as if he had swallowed a lemon. For a second Lyn thought she would actually have the type advantage. That notion lasted as long as it took for the red energy materializing from the great ball to reveal a magmar.   
  
_Fuck._

 

 

 

 

>  
> 
>  
> 
>  

 


	2. Chapter 2 - Lyn 2

  
“Do your thing, Blaze,” he ordered.  
  
_Well, this is going to be a challenge. Where the hell did he get the magmar from?_  
  
Empy let out a worried squeak as the magmar leered at her and nearly took a step back, but managed to stop herself. Lyn couldn’t blame her too much. She was tired already and she had received a few hits, losing her usual mobility. Even in perfect condition, this would have been a long-shot at best.   
  
Magmars were around one and a half meters tall, most a bit below that. This one was quite a bit taller. Everyone in the room felt the heat and Lyn was glad she was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and nothing longer.   
  
This would have been a difficult fight even if Empy didn’t have a disadvantage. Magmar was a difficult pokemon to poison and they were among the more powerful fire types. There weren’t many due to their rarity and the fact that they were difficult pokemon to keep.

Carelessly released, they could do a lot of damage to their surroundings. Its body temperature was around 1,200°C. The closer you got, the more overwhelming the heat. Unsurprising for a pokemon that preferred to live in active volcanos and nowhere else and was pretty much constantly on fire.  
  
There was a reason that the most prominent magmar trainer had his gym uncomfortable close to one. Or rather, it was in one.  
  
There were a lot of things Lyn would do to win a fight. Having her injured starter charge a pokemon that was bigger, heavier, faster and stronger wasn't one of them. Especially if it was also on fire and she'd need to touch it to poison it…   
  
At least at this moment.  
  
“You did a good job.” The red beam engulfed Empy, who managed to shoot Lyn one last angry look before it transformed her into pure energy that drew her back into the confines of the pokeball. She held the pokeball close to her lips. “Sorry, but this was a bad match-up.”  
  
“Lyn’s nidoran is out of this match, she can’t use her again,” proclaimed Florence.  
  
After pocketing Empy’s pokeball, she reached for Jolt’s, enlarging it. Lyn couldn’t use Carrie in this fight so she would have to go with Jolt. The odds weren’t good, steel was weak to fire, but they weren’t zero either.   
  
“Let’s do this, Jolt,” she yelled and hurled her pokeball, releasing her magnemite. Its huge eye immediately fixated at the magmar, not betraying an expression but she couldn’t imagine that Jolt was psyched about this fight.  
  
Jolt let out a mechanic, worried buzz as it increased the distance between the two by floating a bit away from it, his magnets spinning faster and faster. Understandable, seeing that the immense heat made steel types like magnemite uncomfortable.  
  
They were also difficult to control. They tended to have quick tempers and were prone to rage-fits if an enemy angered them.  
  
_Let’s do that, then._  
  
“Supersonic!”   
  
Jolt emitted strong soundwaves by vibrating its magnets at a high speed. Lyn knew that the strong heat would block some of that but enough should penetrate. Maybe show some effect.  
  
Judging by the annoying look on the magmar’s face, it did at least make him uncomfortable.  
  
Faze, still that bitter expression on his face, was quiet.  
  
_Why? He has every advantage._  
  
The magmar exhaled a small flame from its mouth but seemed unimpressed so far.   
  
“Thunderbolt.”  
  
The magnemite released electricity from the two screws below its face. Everyone watched as it arced towards the magmar who managed to duck under it, its eyes narrowed. It opened its mouth and released a small torrent of miniature fireballs. Jolt was able to avoid the ember attack at the last second.  
  
“Supersonic again, amp it up.”  
  
More waves, stronger than before, left the magnets. This time the discomfort was visible on the magmar’s face. It started scowling and let out a grunt of annoyance and now stomped towards Jolt.  
  
“Fall back, try to always keep a pool of water between you two.”  
  
The fact that Jolt could hover helped a lot in that regard. There were a lot of small pools littered on the battlefield. It was easy to keep a distance from the fire pokemon, who could not cross them the same way. What was not helping was that its heat had started to evaporate some of the water, making things a bit harder to see.  
  
_What would happen if it fell into a pool?_  
  
“Keep your distance, harass it with supersonic.”  
  
It wasn’t particularly pleasant for Lyn and the other spectators. The supersonic was aggravating and could even be painful. Thankfully, the distance was great enough to not worry about it too much. The magmar wasn’t so lucky as it was the direct target of the attacks. It was blasting one fireball attack after another, trying to close the distance enough to do damage. Jolt was good at dodging and always keeping a pool in the middle though. Magmar's aim also had suffered as the missed got wider and wider. Jolt was weaving through the fire attacks, pelting the fire pokemon with its sonic attack in return.  
  
_Not enough yet_.  
  
The angrier the magmar got, the hotter it became. With that, more water started to evaporate, and the steam got thicker.  
  
_Nearly there._  
  
Throughout all this, to Lyn’s confusion, Faze had been quiet. He looked frustrated, his right hand balled into a fist and he had a scowl on his face but he wasn’t uttering a word. He seemed to have understood what Lyn was trying to do, but he was letting it happen.  
  
_Why?_  
  
Then, Lyn understood.  
  
_He’s not giving any orders because magmar wouldn't listen._  
  
It made sense. A magmar was a strong pokemon. Proud, willful and already evolved. It needed an experienced trainer or at least some time to bond. Faze didn’t seem to have either the experience or the bonding with the beast to control it.   
  
Then again, he might not need to. It wasn’t that stupid of an idea. It was strong enough that it should carry through most fights here. Why instruct a pokemon if it was powerful and loved to fight? It might do so only on its own terms but it would fight and seeing its strength, that was really all it needed to do.   
  
The plan was working so far. Jolt was able to dodge the ember and fire spin attacks until the magmar stopped. It collected more fire than it did before in its beak and spat out a fireball the size of a coconut. Traveling at a surprising speed, it smashed into the tree next to Jolt. The acedia exploded in a burst of flames. Parts of the fire reached Jolt though, showering it in burning debris. While the wood couldn't harm Jolt, the fire did and it let out a mechanic screech and hovered away.  
  
Magmar dashed forward. It used the distraction to close the distance, once again collecting the flames for what was going to be another flame burst.  
  
“Swerve and then thunder shock!” Lyn yelled, leaning forward, her heart pounding. Sweat was running down her face, her blood was pumping though her veins but the smile on her face was wider than ever.  
  
It was fun and just as difficult as she imagined. Even more so. Yes, the current condition wasn’t ideal, there could be more steam but it had to be enough. She hadn’t realized that it knew an advanced move like it.  
  
_Stupid, stupid, stupid. I underestimated a magmar of all things._   
  
“Jump back!” roared Faze, unable to keep his silence.  
  
Alas, it was too late, not to mention futile. The magmar didn’t even attempt to do so. Jolt obeyed and swerved left. It released a thunder shock that was unfortunately not at its best, seeing as it had so little time to charge it. Yet, the steam in the air had enough water to allow the electric current to travel through it. It reached the magmar in the blink of an eye. The shock of the pure electricity, amplified by the moisture in the air, hit magmar so fast that it couldn’t brace itself and it roared in pain. The fire dissipated in its mouth, now harmless.  
  
After a few seconds, Jolt had to stop its attack. It hovered a few feet away from the panting magmar, tired, but the magmar now had a look of pure fury on its face. Beak twisted into a snarl with smoke coming out and the room was hotter than ever. Lyn had to wipe the sweat from her brows every few seconds now.   
  
By now, Jolt was very well into the fight, and took a few seconds to charge this time, intent to demolish it with the following attack. The magmar saw the electric currents dancing on Jolt’s body and reacted. Spitting out a small whirlwind of flames faster than before, it took Lyn by surprise. Jolt, busy charging its attack was unable to dodge and the fires surrounded it.   


“Fly out!” Lyn yelled. Jolt, while disoriented and in pain, released its electric attack. Managing to push the flames back a bit, it was able to fly up. The magnemite managed to escape the torrent of fire, and plummeted down after getting a bit away. Burn damage was all over its small body and it was shaky.  
  
Lyn cursed. She had focused on Jolt too much in that moment and it had escaped her that magmar had crossed the distance by now. It had dashed around the pool. Magmar’s were on top of everything else also quite fast for their size and shape.  
  
“Thunder Shock, fast!” she yelled and while Jolt was able to gather a bit of current, magmar had already reached it. It had its right fist covered in crackling fire, flames dancing over the knuckles. It smashed its fist right on Jolt's head making Jolt smack down with a loud crack on the ground. The sound of the breaking ground echoed through the arena.  
  
Then, the magmar clutched his fist in pain, pulling it back to its chest, howling. Jolt had still managed to release the attack at the last second, shocking it one last time.  
  
That was it though. Cold, bitter dread was clenching in her stomach. Jolt was down, beaten. Maybe it could get up one more time but magmar was too close and in still too good of a shape to miss from that distance. They had done some serious damage. Maybe more than expected giving the type disadvantage but not enough.

Not that it mattered. Where you barely lost one inch away from the win or were completely destroyed, in the end, a loss was a loss.  
  
She took out Jolt’s poke ball and returned it, just in time before the magmar could start stomping on it and then took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again.  
  
“Winner, Faze and his magmar.” Florence was frowning, a contemplative look on her face. She seemed as unhappy as Lyn was and indeed, as even Faze was as he was looking as if he had been the one to lose this fight. He also returned his pokemon and was looking down on the battlefield, a look of uncertainty and embarrassment etched on his face.  
  
That, more than anything, pissed Lyn off.  
  
_Oh isn’t that perfect, he uses a magmar that he bought but he also feels bad about it._

Lyn looked over the spectators, finally finding Amy and Elyse, as they waved at her. Elyse had a small smile whereas Amy had wide eyes and a look of amazement.  
  
_Why do they look so happy?_ She couldn’t understand it. Anger and humiliation burned in her stomach. A magmar, a freaking, godsforsaken magmar. It was unfair. An evolved pokemon, where there was no way he had just happened to have caught it on his own, used right here, right now. In front of Sabrina’s eyes, she had lost to some rich kid, who might as well have beaten her with a wallet or credit card.

She glared at him, clenching her fist.   
  
Before she could turn back, she saw a figure she hadn’t expected to see quite yet about. A girl with her long, black hair in a lazy ponytail. She wore a bright pink backpack, blue jeans and a red t-shirt, a blue vest over it and she was giving her a thumbs up alongside a cocky grin. A girl with a face almost identical to hers. The one real difference being the pink, glossy lipstick on her lips.  
  
Her older sister had finally arrived.  
  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
  
The wait turned out to be boring and frustrating. Her pokemon were with the medical team and all she could do was watch the other matches on screen, and while any other time she would have been ecstatic to see rivals and potential enemies go all out, revealing their techniques and strategies, right now she was too angry to truly concentrate.  
  
Nigel had lost his first fight to a trainer from Leaf Village, who then later on had also lost to Faze. Vyle in the meantime had managed to eke out a win against a trainer from Sable City. The match had been rather close, her cyndaquil had some difficulty against the goldeen but had snatched a win. Too bad she lost in the next round to their classmate Mara, whose charmander was at the top of his game.   
  
When she returned from her defeat she gave Nigel a weak smile who stood up and gave her a quick kiss, hugging her close. "You did so good, babe."  
  
"Oh, it was such an annoying loss though. I really thought I had her this time."  
  
"At least you got to round two, that's almost a guarantee for a pass, right?"  
  
She bit her lips. "I don't know. Technically we both could pass but Sabrina at most passes four or five people. Often less."  
  
"It's going to work out, I know it."  
  
That was a healthy dose of optimism that Lyn lacked. Knocked out in the first fight wasn't a particularly good endorsement of her skills but she also had done the best against the magmar. At least, in her own opinion.  
  
Lyn hated losing, and winning was of course best but during her years at the Saffron Gym they had been taught again and again how just winning wasn’t everything. It was a concept that she was still struggling with at times but right now, after such an early loss, that was all she could cling to. That despite her defeat, she had done as well as she could have. A loss might be a loss, but thinking a bit calmer now, this had been a platform to show their pokemon handling skills.

That didn’t make the burning lead that had been making her stomach clench ever since her defeat disappear though, neither did it lessened her anger. Anger at herself. If she had used Jolt first, she could have defeated the horsea much faster and would have had two pokemon to deal with magmar. Not a guaranteed win, of course, but certainly much better chances than just one pokemon with a type disadvantage.

_Not that Empy would have fared much better against a freaking magmar._

Maybe that was the thing that annoyed her the most. That there hadn’t been anything she could have done to prevent this defeat. That no matter what she could have done, it wouldn’t have mattered, barring a freak lucky shot or the magmar having a heart attack.

One of Jolt’s attacks could have paralyzed the magmar and had it collapse into a pool. That was something to think about, for the next time, to have her pokemon push his into the water.

 _And there will be a next time!_  
  
The winner, of course, had been Faze. The fights had been close at times, but the magmar had been too strong for them all. While the fight against Jolt had tired it out, every other pokemon it faced had been tired from their previous fights as well, so it hadn’t been a real disadvantage. It was so big and strong, that it endured whatever amount of damage the other pokemon could inflict before it knocked them down.  
  
All in all, with few short breaks, the whole thing had wrapped up in an hour, during which she had sat in her spot, arms crossed over her chest, seething, and the anger was only slowly ebbing away.   
  
By now, everyone was back in the room. Her pokemon would be ready for pick-up after the ceremony had concluded.   
  
Lyn was twitching and tried to keep her expression calm and composed. She didn’t want Sabrina to see her angry. Not Sabrina, who was famous for never getting aggravated or emotional during a match, who was perfectly composed during every situation. Who had kept her calm in the face of dragons and titans and had won.

That was the person she had to emulate and be if she wanted to succeed, to always have a hold on herself. It would be essential for the SYT, if she got there. Dread was filling her, the thought of having to miss out on that, to have to wait a few months before trying again…

That was when the doors opened with a sharp click and Sabrina marched into the room with large strides, her arms crossed behind her back. Florence was right on her track, effortlessly carrying a box the size of a shoe-carton under her arm.

Any thoughts she had were interrupted with her entrance. Lyn immediately stood up, standing straight, looking wide eyed at Sabrina and she could see every other trainer doing the same. All conversation died down immediately, and from one second to the next, the only sound was the clacking of the heels the two women were wearing.

Meeting Sabrina was always an experience. Today, she was wearing white jeans, a red top and a white jacket over it. Her black hair was short and wavy. Her cool, blue eyes wandered over the trainers, piercing them. Judging them.

Those were the eyes of the woman who had practically carved her own gym into the capital city of the nation, deposing the old gym which had stood for generations. The woman who had rampaged through the Gym Circuit and Indigo Plateau. Who was rumored to be able to read minds and had connected deeper with psychic pokemon than any other trainer before her.  
  
Two ultra balls hung on her belt, white lower halves, black top halves with yellow lines. One of them, Lyn knew, was Nostradamus, her prized alakazam, her strongest pokemon. She always had him with her, either in his ball with her or out of it, floating besides her. She had seen him tear through entire professional teams. Today, she didn’t have him out, for which she found herself to be glad about.

It was a rare privilege for Sabrina to have time for trainers on their level. Sabrina’s schedule was complex. She had periods of time where people avoided her gym because they knew it was going to be unlikely to receive a badge. Then someone would luck into a win, tons of people would try to challenge her, thinking she was weak. Some upcoming big shot-trainer would then try to take on Sabrina. They would be thinking they had her number and she would demolish them. This in turn once again made people avoid her for a time.  
  
Lather, rinse, repeat.  
  
Otherwise she was busy with research, training and the occasional visit to the Indigo Plateau.   
  
No, Sabrina was one of the top gym leaders in the world for a reason and it was an honor to listen to her.  
  
“Some of you did well,” she said, standing in front of us, her arms crossed. “It is my pleasure to proclaim that five of the sixteen trainers today have passed and even those that haven't did show some potential. Some of them, at least. I am sure that you will do your best and we will all meet again in the arena. Some to try once more for the license and the others when they will try to win my badge.”  
  
She glanced to the side to see Florence looking at her, raising an eyebrow, which made her lips twitch slightly for a second, making that the first emotion to appear on her blank face so far.   
  
“And I would like for one of you to be among those few that succeed one day,” Sabrina added, but she seemed amused at the notion and it was obvious she had added that not because she believed in it but rather that was the kind of thing a gym leader should say. “We will now announce those who passed."  
  
Somehow she stood straighter, her clear voice becoming sharper. "Let me say right away, that those who participated in the courses were likelier to pass. If only for the simple reason that we knew them better and could judge them more thoroughly for a longer period of time. However, that didn't excuse any mistakes made. The ability to keep a cool head in a battle with high stakes such as today is essential for a trainer. For those of you who have been coming from elsewhere; we looked over your transcripts, talked with some of your teachers and then used today to make our final judgments. If anyone has a problem with today's rulings, they are free to lodge a complaint."  
  
"That's our complaint box." Florence pointed at a garbage can next to the wall on the left. Sabrina shot her an indecipherable look but also didn't disagree.   
  
She then continued, "Very well. First trainer, Vyle Arent. Come forward please."  
  
Vyle let out a sigh of relief at the same time that Nigel let out an enthusiastic whoop.   
  
"Congratulations. Take your package and stand over there, please." Florence handed over a small package which Vyle accepted with a shaky smile.  
  
"Well done, kid. That was a good show you put up," Florence said, a relaxed grin on her face.   
  
"Mara Green, take your package, you deserve it. Well fought."  
  
Mara had long, brown hair that went down to her waist. She wore a skirt, a frilly brown shirt and a blue hairband. She would no doubt meet her at the SYT.  
  
She received her package with a polite bow and Lyn could feel the Sabrina's approval for her as she nodded back.   
  
"Next," Sabrina continued, "is Nigel Hale. Congratulations to you as well, you’ve shown your worth."  
  
"Nice!" yelled Nigel, pumping up both hands into the air and Vyle even let out a small jump of happiness. Sabrina looked unimpressed whereas Florence just cleared her throat.  
  
"Ah yeah, sorry. Thanks a lot, ma'am."  
  
Florence pressed the thing into his arms and shooed him to the side.

"Next up is Lyn Raine."

 _Thank the gods_. Relief flooded her body as she relaxed, the churning in her stomach stopping and a certain light headedness sinking in. Until now, Lyn had been too sucked into the atmosphere that Sabrina had created to realize that she still had been worrying but hearing her name snapped her out of that at the same time that that worry had been made unnecessary.    
  
Lyn had her hopes raised when Nigel had gotten his license, seeing as they both lost pretty early but to actually get it. No, that was something else.  
  
"Well done," Sabrina said as she walked up to Florence. "You impressed me, Miss Raine. Come to my office after this ceremony."  
  
Lyn's mind turned blank, her eyes widened as she stared at Sabrina.   
  
"What?"  
  
"You heard her, Raine." Florence was smirking. "Now mosey along, we don't have all day."  
  
It was like she was in a daze. She took her space next to the other three that had passed and ignored their questions. Why her? What had impressed Sabrina? Her loss? What did that mean?  
  
Deep in thought, wondering what the hell just had happened, she also missed out on Bryce receiving his package. He was the only outsider to pass, surprising everyone.   
  
After all, the winner of the tournament hadn't passed.  
  
"That was all. Good luck trainers on your journey.”  
  
With that last remark, she turned around and left.

“H-hey, what about me?” asked a shaken voice and all eyes turned around to Faze, who was fidgeting and seemed bewildered and uncertain. “Didn’t I-“  
  
Sabrina fixed him with a sharp gaze that made him immediately shut his mouth and Lyn could see sweat breaking out on his face as he feebly tried to hold her gaze but looked away after a second, briefly trying to glance back but always averting his eyes. After a few seconds of this, Sabrina narrowed her eyes, her nose flared for a bit and she turned back around again and strode out, not saying a single word to him.

Not that she needed to.

“Well, that was awkward,” muttered Florence under her breath as she took the spot that Sabrina just vacated. “Anyway, after that rousing speech, I bet ya’ll can’t wait to hear more technical stuff. Well, those packages include your pokedex, pokecom, license and your personal starter kit. The starter kit has three pokeballs and some first aid things in case you screw up on the first route. And, you know, didn't think about getting your own stuff, which you should. Unfortunately, this stuff isn’t for free, even if it’s a lot cheaper. So be sure to pay or we’ll have problems down the line,” she said the last bit with a wink. "Don't worry though. If you failed, you won't have to pay for the electronic stuff, just for the attempt. It's already going to be a bitch to fix the damages you lot did to the court."  
  
Her light tone didn't exactly help those that had failed. Elba, another classmate, had fancied himself the star student of the course and was fuming. He had some reason to, Lyn admitted. He had two psychic pokemon on his team and he wasn't exactly shabby with them but it seems the way he got taken apart by Bryce had been enough to end that story.

Not that she had much room to judge his anger, despite her passing, she still was angry.   
  
“Oh yeah, before I forget. Hey, magmar kid,” she called to Faze, who flushed at the nickname. “Since you won the damn thing, you’ll get the prize. Congrats on a new psyduck." with that, she tossed a pokeball against his chest which he then caught in a hasty fumble. He might have failed but psyducks were pretty handy to have. Psychic/water was a nice combo.  
  
_But I want another psychic/water pokemon._  
  
"I know you would have liked to pass, but you know why you failed, didn't you?"  
  
"I-I,." he stammered, his voice was coarse, his face flush from embarrassment and shame, before he closed his mouth again, not finishing his sentence.

"You better learn to control that beast of a magmar of yours. Using a pokemon – no matter how strong- that you can't control is foolhardy at best. Don't get me wrong, it was a winning strategy that didn’t break any rules after all, and that counts big time. Especially later on in tournaments, you'll see some people try it, to get a leg up on the competition. They'll have caught or bought some crazy strong beast and hope that'll be enough. And yeah," she let her gaze wander over all participants, "sometimes it is. It's not forbidden. But today wasn’t the day to try that. Today was about showing what you knew. How you could control your pokemon, how you assessed taking a risk and playing it safe. How you planned and made the best out of difficult match ups. In short, it was all about showing how responsible and capable of a pokemon trainer you're. That you know how to take care of your pokemon and aren’t a danger to you, your own pokemon and others. To show us that you could shoulder the immense responsibility that is training a team of pokemon."

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, as she let her eyes wander over the assembled trainers. She saw those who were angry and devastated at failing and those who had passed but were standing apprehensively. She focused again on Faze. "I'll be honest kid, you've got potential. And balls, but you need some brains as well if you want the license from this gym. Not to mention the badge way, way later on. And some control. We noticed that after your first loss you freaked out and pulled out the magmar. I doubt that had been your initial plan. We value control pretty high here and you showed a remarkable lack of that. What you did was a desperate tournament strategy, not a gym one and those two are very different things."

She had walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come back next time showing that you know that and we'll see about that license."  
  
Faze mumbled a thanks, his face redder than ever.

 _How do I fight him again then, if he won’t be a trainer for a while?_  
  
She turned to the rest. "Okay gang, now get the hell out of my gym. Those who passed, go the front desk and register your pokedexes and trainer ID in the system before you leave. Exam is over. Good job everyone. Lyn, come here, I'll bring you to Sabrina."  
  
The group dispersed, with Nigel, Mara and Vyle shooting Lyn an enquiring look as they walked out, and Lyn followed the tall woman. Florence didn't say anything as she was leading her through the halls of the gym. Until Lyn couldn't take it anymore.  
   
"What's she going to talk about with me?"  
  
"Oh you know, this and that." The teasing smile on her face didn't help either. "Oh relax, it's nothing too big, I imagine. You did well earlier. Sabrina's had her eyes on you for a while now and you put on a good show today. That's all."  
  
_That's all?_  
  
"Well, here we are. Go in."  
  
They were standing in front of a fancy pair of doors. Sabrina's personal office. It felt like standing before the cave of a monster.  
  
"You won't be coming in?" Lyn croaked, her voice shakier than she would have wanted.   
  
"Oh no, this is a private meeting, after all. What I will be doing though, if you give me your pokedex and license, is to put you in the system while you two have your little talk."  
  
Lyn handed the package over. So far, she hadn't even looked at it and Florence's amusement on the fact that it was still closed was showing.   
  
With those in hand, she turned around and rushed off.  
  
Lyn gulped, took a deep breath and before her knuckles touched the door, she heard Sabrina telling her to come in.  
  
So she did, despite being a bit freaked out by that.  
  
Once the doors had opened, Lyn entered. A rich red carpet decorated the floor, there was an impressive desk placed right in front of the window. Behind it sat Sabrina, her blue eyes gazing on Lyn.   
  
Lyn couldn't have described the office afterwards, she had been entirely focused on Sabrina. She flinched when something touched her legs and made her jump, only to see that it was Sabrina's espeon, which had brushed her body against Lyn.  
  
"That's Leah," she introduced her pokemon.  
  
"Hello," Lyn said, fidgeting.   
  
"Calm down, Miss Raine. You aren't normally this uncertain."  
  
_Normally, I'm not in the office of a gym leader._  
  
"In fact, that's one of the qualities that made you...attractive as a candidate."  Her lips lingered on the word.  
  
"What sort of candidate, ma'am?" her voice sounded, at least to her own ears, a bit firmer now.  
  
"I don't like battling, Miss Raine. Or can I call you Lynnea?"  
  
"Of- of course."  
  
"I don't like battling, Lynnea," she repeated, "But I respect its value and I am excellent at it, if you forgive me that arrogant statement. And I have a good eye to spot others who are the same. I believe you are one such person." She let that statement stand for a few seconds before she continued. "I believe that you have potential. The question now, however, is to see whether you can live up to that potential."  
  
Lyn had calmed down, the shock hard worn off. Now she knew roughly what Sabrina wanted from her and she was getting excited.  
  
"How would you like me to prove said potential."  
  
Sabrina leaned back, satisfaction showing on her face. Leah, the espeon had returned to her and was now lounging on her desk. Sabrina was letting her gloved fingers run through her fur. "I hope you’re familiar with the Saffron Youth Tournament.”

It was hard not to be, there had been more advertisement for that than anything else in the last two months. So Lyn nodded. “I want to participate.”

“Excellent, I also want you to participate and I want you to do well. Impress me, Lynnea. Show me that you have learned the lessons we teach here, our values. And I want to see how you raise your abra, Carrie was her name, if I am not misremembering, correct?”

_She knows the names of my pokemon?_

Lyn gulped, feeling the dryness of her throat. “Ye-yes, that’s her name, ma’am.”

“Good, I expect you to show me that you are a competent trainer, and that you present to me that you understand what that means even beyond fighting. I expect to see a capable kadabra. I expect you to be punctual and show me my faith in you was well placed. If you impress me, we'll talk more. Sponsorship. Maybe even joining my team later on. If you don't...well, we'll also talk but it will be significantly less enjoyable for you."  
  
Lyn didn’t know what to say, her blood pumping in excitement.   
  
_That's one hell of an incentive._ An opportunity to get a sponsorship from Sabrina? Something the winner of the SYT wouldn’t even get? That was…she didn’t know what it was. Amazing? Unbelievable? Bizarre?   
  
"I'm surprised you picked me though, ma’am. I-I lost in round one." And she still felt bitter about that. Humiliated, in front of Sabrina no less.  
  
"Yes, you did, and I expect better in the future. However, everyone can get lucky or unlucky once or twice. Do you think I never lost? Or trainers like Lance? We all did. I'm not impressed by narrow wins that depend more on chance than on ability. The person that beat you gambled that the magmar would rather fight you than do anything else. If you hadn't engaged it at all, it was just as likely for it to have wandered off or gone sleeping. If you two were to fight once more right now, I doubt his strategy would work again. See, those kind of victories are ultimately meaningless. That's not true strength. When some enemy challenges you and you beat them down each and every time without fail, that no matter what they do, a victory against you is impossible, that, Lynnea, is true strength. That is what winning looks like. Stability. Reliability. Constance.”

When she said those words, she stressed every single one of them, and Lyn felt them reverberating through her.

“Not a one-time fluke or a narrow win. And if you happen to lose once? You fight them again and again and grind them to the dirt again and again.” She gave Lyn a dangerous smile that made the hair on her arms rise and shot a shudder through her but at the same time made her hear beat faster. “And I believe you can be someone who can live up to true strength and I want to see it realized." All throughout her speech, both Sabrina and her espeon had stared at her without blinking.  
  
"If I impress you,” Lyn said, her voice nearly a whisper.  
  
"If you impress me," Sabrina agreed, folding her hands together in front of her on the table. Her espeon was like a statue at this point, fixating on her.  
  
"I'll take that challenge,” Lyn tried to inject her voice with as much certainty and confidence as she could. This was the chance she had always wanted.   
  
"Very well then, Lyn. I am happy to hear that. Florence will have put both of our numbers in your pokecom. I don't have to tell you to be responsible with them. Call in an emergency, otherwise, I'll keep an eye on you and we'll meet again when the tournament starts, where you'll show me how much you’ve improved."  
  
"Thank you ma'am. You won't regret giving me this chance.  
  
"I know," she murmured. "I can see the future, after all."  
  
Lyn almost laughed, but right now, standing in front of Sabrina, in her office, she believed her.  
  
\------------------------------------------  
  
On the way out, Florence ruffled Lyn’s hair and Lyn didn’t had the energy to do something about it. She still felt shaky and as if she had just stepped out of a dream.  
  
"Here kid, your pokemon are mostly fit, your nidoran needs to take it easy for a bit but your pokedex was updated with her more exact status. Your ID is registered, same as the rest of your stuff and you are ready to go."  
  
She took it all. Her first glance at her pokedex, the universal proof that she was an official trainer. Red and shiny. She pocketed in the inner pockets of the vest she had put on after leaving the office. She strapped on the pokecom to her arm and admired. A click revealed the numbers that were already on it, Sabrina and Florence.  
  
"If you prank call or give them to anyone else, I'll have to visit you and you won't like that." Her tone was joking but Lyn could hear that she was serious about it on some level.  
  
"I won't," she promised. No way was she going to squander a big chance like this.  
  
"Oh, I know you won't." she patted Lyn's head, only for Lyn to try to brush the hand away. Florence had already withdrawn it, though, and returned the flat look that Lyn gave her with a cheeky smile.   
  
“Good luck out there, kid. Come back when you want an official asskicking.”  
  
That prospect did cheer her up. “Oh, you can count on that,” she said. “That fight’s going to happen sometime.”  
  
Florence snorted. “Yeah sure. You’re welcome to try. At least it will be an amusing ten seconds.” And with that, she walked away, leaving with the last word.

It would be quite a while before she could seriously challenge Florence. She had been among the group of trainers who had formed Sabrina’s core team with which she had blazed her path through the pokemon world years ago and her strength was considerable.

Sabrina didn’t have incompetent trainers working for her, only outstanding ones.

 _And I have the chance to join them one day._  
  
The rest had already left, and with that, Lyn walked out of the arena as well, going outside to meet her family.  
  
This was going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, you can see the capriciousness of the dice. On one hand, Lyn had the bad luck that not only one of the beginners got a magmar, he was also the first guy she was fighting and of course he won, even if it was closer than expected. Which is a pity, since winning a psyduck in the tournament would have been nice and the guy who got it already had the strongest party present.
> 
> On the other hand, Lyn had outstanding luck on the “how much does Sabrina like her” roll and got the perfect critical roll there, which opened the “Sabrina really likes Lyn and is interested in her” story line, with eventual sponsorship and more awaiting her down the line, if she manages, of course.
> 
> As a quick reminder, this is her current team:
> 
> Lyn: Empy the Nidoran female (Poison Point, 25/29 EP), Jolt the Magnemite (Sturdy, 14/65 EP), Carrie the Abra (Synchronize, 11/29EP).


	3. Chapter 3 - Cassie 1

Chapter 3 - Cassie 1  
  
To say that Cassie was nervous would be a huge understatement. It wasn’t even meeting Lyn and the prospect that she was going to travel with her after years of not seeing her outside of the occasional video chat on their birthdays.  
  
No, it would be meeting Elyse, Lyn’s step mom and her half-sister Amy for the first time.  
  
What was she going to say? She had brought a plushy of a muk as a present. Kids that age loved cute things, right?  
  
_Nothing cuter than a muk,_ of that she was certain.  
  
But how was she going to behave? Shake hands? Give a hug? You didn’t shake the hands of a five-year-old, right? That was weird.  
  
She had seen them in the stands. Recognized the two from the occasional photo Lyn had deigned to share with her. She had watched them cheering Lyn on as she was getting creamed by that cheating asshole. The squirt seemed adorable and Elyse's positive yelling sounded genuine.  
  
Heck, those two had cheered harder than anyone else sitting there. It could’ve easily been embarrassing but Cassie was just touched. It was lame and cheesy but in a good way.  
  
_In comparison, mom, auntie and uncle had been practically stoic._  
  
She hadn’t approached them then. Mostly because she had been running a bit late. She had only caught the end of Lyn’s nidoran - she forgot the name- kicking that horsea’s ass and didn't want to disturb them then.  
  
_But where’s dad? He should’ve been here._  
  
There they were, Cassie had finally spotted them. Standing outside, not far from the main entrance. They had taken different exits after the ceremony had concluded. Sabrina was way worse at this whole motivation thing than Brock had been in Cassie’s humble opinion. Then again, everyone preferred the gym trainers of their home-city.  
  
“Cassandra, is that you, dear?” Elyse greeted her, with an awkward smile on her face. It seemed she was just as uncomfortable as Cassie right now.  
  
Cassie didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, she was glad that Elyse was as lost on what to do as she was and she wasn’t the only bumbling, awkward idiot here. On the other, it would have been nice if one person here knew what do.  
  
“Nice to meet you two, Mrs. Winter and you too Amy.” It never hurt to be polite. They had met once, seven or eight years ago and back then they hadn’t really interacted. Cassie had been too focused on her father whom she had missed for a while then.  
  
It seemed that the polite distance convinced Elyse to take the reins of this meeting. The smile on her face became wider and more genuine. She stepped forward and embraced her.  
  
“Oh, none of that, it’s Elyse or aunt Elyse, whatever you feel more comfortable with. Oh, you’ve grown so much, so pretty as well.”  
  
Elyse was a bit taller than either sibling. Her short blonde hair bound in a tight bun tickled Cassie's nose during the hug, which she returned, but Cassie was glad.  
  
They released the hug. Elyse then pushed Amy from behind her legs where she had taken cover to peek at Cassie.  
  
“Amy,” she said, “I want you to meet your other sister, Cassie. Didn’t you always want to meet her, honey?”  
  
She nodded. “Hi,” her voice was barely audible in her whisper but Cassie grinned, kneeling down.  
  
“It’s great to finally meet you, Amy. I’ve heard lots about you.”  
  
_Well, some_. Cassie had always wanted to meet Amy, - another little sister, how cool was that? – but Lyn had never been particularly enthusiastic about sharing stuff via mail. Well, outside of the occasional photograph and short message. Writing Elyse had always felt like an awkward prospect and she really didn’t want their first conversation be over a phone.  
  
Wracking her brain on what to say, she finally decided on a safe topic. “Hey, I’ve brought a present for you.” _Bribery for affection was a valid tactic_. She took out the little wrapped present from her pink backpack. “It’s not much but you can see it as an early birthday present. You are turning six in a month, right?”  
  
Amy’s face brightened and she lunged for the present, making Cassie laugh.  
  
“Oh yeah, that’s a sister of mine, alright.”  
  
“What do we say, Amy?” the mother teased her youngest daughter.  
  
Amy, having already unwrapped the purple plushy of the slime pokemon, hurled herself at Cassie. “Thank you so much, he’s awesome!”  
  
“I know, right? Can’t wait to get my own.”  
  
“What is he?” Amy asked, her eyes big with delight and curiosity.  
  
“That’s a muk. They are this cute poison pokemon and they can be strong and versatile and I’ll try to capture one. Or a grimer, that’s his previous evolution. Either one is fine, really.”  
  
“That’s so cool!”  
  
“Yeah, it is. It’s going to be great.” She paused for a second, “Hey, if you want, and if I manage capturing one, I could show it to you whenever.”  
  
“Oh please, can she mom?” she turned to her mother, a begging expression on her face. Elyse, meanwhile, was looking a bit uneasy and confused. “Su-sure,” she stuttered. Cassie then remembered that most people weren’t all that fond of them because of their supposed smell, but really, how bad could it be? Poison pokemon were awesome and she carried enough anti-dotes anyway.  
  
_Still, better to change the subject._  
  
“You know, you should check my vlogs. I’m gonna upload two to three times a week, to give a status report for my viewers, tell them about our journey. Well, mostly about me, but I’m sure Lyn will be in plenty of them, if she agrees.”  
  
Elyse eyes widened, her mouth parting slightly and she swiftly turned her head towards Cassie. “Oh, I didn’t know you were planning to become a vlogger.”  
  
Cassie snorted. “Planning to? I’m one. Well, more of a streamer but hard to play games on the road, beating trash in battles. So, during this time, I’ll be vlogging. My sponsor,” here she was pointing at her pink backpack which had a logo that she was sure Elyse didn’t recognize. “is pretty cool with it.”  
  
“Will they be…appropriate for younger audiences?” she was a bit hesitant, taking a quick glance at Amy but she was absorbed in prodding the plushie and thankfully wasn’t paying any attention to their conversation. “I mean, I don’t want her to hear or see anything bloody or with swears.”  
  
Cassie had followed her look and bit her lip. “Ah, I dunno, I do say the, ahm, occasional swear. But I think I can tone it down. Probably. And while I’m travelling, won’t be streaming any games anyway.”  
  
Elyse nodded, her expression brightening as her lips curved, “Well, I would love to hear about what you girls are up to and when possible, will show it to Amy as well. She’ll be so happy to keep track of her big sisters like that.” Her smile fell, and her voice became a bit shaky. “I fear she’s going to miss Lyn really badly. And Jolt.”  
  
“Well, we can’t have that. Seriously, tune in, it should be awesome.”  
  
“I will. Thank you for telling me about that. It makes me so glad.”  
  
Cassie smiled and wrote down her webhandle and address. “Here, just look me up, if you subscribe, you should get an email whenever I put something up. Feel free to just call or write as well.”  
  
“Oh, I will, thank you so much. And you as well. If you girls have any trouble, need anything or just want to talk, please contact me.”  
  
Cassie was touched. “Yeah, sure, will do.”  
  
There was a beat of silence and Cassie had to voice the one question that had been nagging in the back of her head. “Where’s dad?”  
  
Elyse’s face flushed the faint color of shame. “Ah,” she mumbled, “he’s busy writing his book. He has these inspiration weeks during which he rents a hotel room or a cabin and locks himself in for a week or two and just writes.”  
  
Cassie frowned and crossed her arms. “Huh, that sucks. I wanted to see him.”  
  
“He has been gone for three days, it was a very spontaneous thing.”  
  
“Maybe I’ll see him when we come back?”  
  
_Why did he leave just before I came? Just before Lyn’s exam?_  
  
“I’m certain of it,” she said. “When are you girls leaving, will you have time to eat dinner with us one last time?”  
  
“We are leaving right now,” Lyn interrupted them. She was now standing right next to them. They hadn’t noticed her coming.  
  
“Lyn!” yelled Amy and ran to her and Lyn, with the frown already on her face becoming bigger, lifted her up. “You were so cool!”  
  
“Oh, hey little sis. Nice match there, you’d have stomped that guy if that cheating bas-baddie hadn’t pulled a magmar out of his – out of thin air.”  
  
_Perfect save, Cassie you idiot._  
  
Lyn scowled, “I lost. That’s all there is to it. If I had a legendary that didn’t obey me, I would have used that as well, let alone a magmar. Well, not in this thing but in general. The fault was mine for not being good enough.”  
  
_Yikes, what a bundle of cheer. And honesty._  
  
“You were great honey, you were so impressive.” Elyse was trying to smile but couldn’t. “You’re leaving now? Wouldn’t you like it if we all went to eat together? We could celebrate you becoming a trainer and the beginning of your journey. When will we get you two girls together like this again?”  
  
“If we do that, it will be too late to start today and we’ll lose valuable time. The tournament is in two months already and we don’t have a day to waste.”  
  
"What tournament?" Cassie hadn't signed up for any tournament. She hadn't been exactly training hard for the last year, too busy with her streaming career. No way could she get into a serious competitive tournament shape in two months.  
  
"The SYT tournament that's going to happen here in Saffron City. I signed us both up."  
  
_What the hell!_  
  
"You signed both of us up for the SYT? Why?”  
  
"Because that's how we get better. By beating others."  
  
"You got your license not even an hour ago and you already want to win a tournament? It's called U20 but mainly because it's aimed at trainers who are actually twenty and have two years of experience under their belt. Not for newbies like us. I don’t want to make my debut in a tournament with a crushing defeat."  
  
"Sabrina may sponsor me if I do well in the U20 tourney."  
  
"Wow." Cassie didn't know what to say to that. Admittedly, that was a very good reason. For Lyn that is, not so much for her. Still, this was not the place or time to argue this out, right when they met for the first time in years, right in front of Elyse and Amy. "Ah well, in that case. Why not. Shouldn't be that hard.”  
  
_Yeah right._  
  
“Would starting tomorrow be so bad?” asked Elyse, her voice shaky and her eyes were starting to become a bit watery. That sight made her feel like a complete heel and a hunch told her that Lyn’s answer wouldn’t be all that diplomatic.  
  
“We’re sorry, auntie,” Cassie put a bright, cheerful smile on her face, laying an arm over Elyse’s shoulder. “Looks like we actually have a tight schedule to keep. But we’ll stay in touch, and hey, we’ll be here for our debut tournament in two months at the latest. It’s okay that I can stay with you guys then, right? I’ll need a place to crash.”  
  
“Of course,” her voice was aghast, as if the notion that the two girls might sleep somewhere else was highly offensive. “You’re always welcome in our home.” She paused for a moment. “Well, if that‘s how it goes, I won’t try to disrupt your schedule.”  
  
“It’s rough but I can promise you that I’m already looking forward to our return.” Cassie’s smile was enough to make Elyse look at her with a small, fond smile as well, when she rubbed her left eye. “And it will be really fun.  
  
Lyn shot Cassie an odd look but didn’t say anything.  
  
“Are your pokemon healed? They took a few nasty hits,” Cassie asked her sister.  
  
“It was nothing serious. The worst has been healed. Jolt is alright, Empy needs to take it a bit easy for a day or so but she’ll be okay. We can go.”  
  
“Very well, then. You got your things, I take it?”  
  
Lyn nodded, to the dismay of Elyse and Amy.  
  
“I don’t have your lunch-packs with me, girls.” Her tone was more apologetic than the situation warranted, seeing that Lyn was pulling the rug out from under her feet there.  
  
“Well, that’s it, I guess.” Cassie was feeling bad for the two Winters but by now she felt that a quick getaway would be less upsetting for them than drawing it out. Lyn’s loss and that offer seemed to have rattled her too much to be considerate of her family’s feelings right now. “It was so great to meet you two.” She squatted down, face to face with Amy, who had a shy smile on her face, trying to wipe away the tears. “Especially you, Amy. I hope we’ll get to talk a lot more from now on. I promise, I’ll call and visit as much as I can.”  
  
“I’d like that,” Amy said, her voice so close to a whisper that Cassie had to really focus to hear what she was saying.  
  
“Of course, you’ll have to see and meet my awesome pokemon friends. That reminds me.” She grabbed a pokeball from her belt and released the pokemon within, the red energy revealing a pikachu. Most of its small body was a mute yellow, while the ends of its long ears were black. His zig-zagged tail twitched upon his release and his reddish cheeks puffed in curiosity. “This is Rush. I’d like for you to meet him.”  
  
Amy’s eyes widened, her mouth open. She probably hadn’t seen a pikachu before. They weren’t super rare but less common than one would think. Especially seeing that they only lived in the depths of the Viridian Forest, which is where she caught Rush. Well, barring the occasional member of the species that had wandered elsewhere or got released. They were also pretty cute and thus popular.  
  
“Hi Rush,” she greeted him. Rush squeaked happily at her, waddling over to her and rubbing his face into her stomach, prodding her into petting him and he preened at the attention that the young girl showered him with.  
  
_That needy jerk,_ Cassie was smiling as she looked at them. Rush loved to be pampered like that.  
  
She stood up, turning to Elyse. “Don’t forget to tune in.”  
  
“I won’t.” She pulled her into a last hug, whispered a quiet sorry into her ear, for which Elyse pressed her extra hard for a second and then stepped back, to allow them to say goodbye.  
  
Elyse then embraced Lyn, muttering something in her ear, who endured the hug being stiff as a board, but her face had flushed a bit red.  
  
_Ah, seems even she realized she’s being a bit of a bitch right now._  
  
“Thank you for coming,” Lyn said. “I appreciated you two being here. I’ll be in touch.” Lyn patted Amy on the head, who by now had separated from Rush and glomped her sister one last time, holding tight with her tiny arms.  
  
“I’ll miss you, Lyn.” She was crying openly now and Lyn obviously didn’t know how to handle this. She was still awkwardly patting her head, frowning, looking a weird combination of almost disturbed and lost.  
  
“I’ll miss you as well,” Lyn said.  
  
Elyse released her from her suffering by bending down and picking her daughter up, a weak smile on her face. “Well, we knew this would be an emotional moment.”  
  
“We should hit the road before Lyn starts crying as well.” Lyn shot an irritated look at Cassie for that comment but it did make Elyse laugh.  
  
  
“We wouldn’t want that,” Elyse said and wiped at the redness of her eyes.  
  
_Worth it._  
  
“See ya.” And with that, the two girls walked off, heavy backpacks strapped on their backs and with Rush having climbed on Lyn’s shoulder. Thankfully, he wasn’t too heavy and she could carry him like that for a bit.  
  
For the first ten minutes, neither of them talked as they were navigating through the countless people streaming on the streets. Lyn was calm, with a thoughtful expression on her face.  
  
Cassie exchanged a worried glance with Rush who just shrugged.  
  
Cassie wasn’t sure what to talk about. They didn’t have many conversations over the years. Mostly just occasional video chats. That they would go on this pokemon journey together had been a decision they made nearly two years ago, encouraged by their mother to rectify that distance. Cassie had been fine with waiting a year, it gave her more time to devote to her streaming. She had the sinking feeling though, that Lyn might not have wanted to wait, but voicing that would be crass and she wasn’t certain she wasn’t being overly harsh there.  
  
But it hadn’t really allowed them much chances to talk. Lyn had been busy studying and training her pokemon, and Cassie had been jobbing and streaming.  
  
“Any changes to our route, with the tournament and all?” she asked, unable to bear the silence any more.  
  
“Not really. In about an hour, we should be out of the city and with a bit of luck, we might be able to reach Pokemon Tech by the time it’s dark. Can sleep there and get Empy checked out one last time. I called there last week and they don’t charge much for an overnight bed and breakfast. Twenty bucks for us both, and we can make use of all their facilities.”  
  
Cassie nodded. It wasn’t a bad idea. It was still noon and it didn’t get dark until around 8-9 pm. From what she remembered from the time she had studied the map and researched online, this should be manageable.  
  
“Any hopes for a good capture on the route?"  
  
"A vulpix," Lyn said without taking any time to think on that. "Really, hands down the best pokemon available around Saffron City. Versatile fire type. Wouldn't say no to houndour, murkrow or growlithe though."  
  
"Same, to be honest. Would love a growlithe of vulpix. There are a bunch of good ones there but the real treat starts later."  
  
Lyn hummed in agreement. "Too bad it's much later."  
  
Cassie snorted. After a few minutes of further silence, during which the amount of people started to thin out as they were nearing the city borders, she said, “Be honest, do you see us having a chance at that tournament? Beginners haven’t really done well in them. Tended to get crushed by those with more experience.”  
  
“It’s not so much the question if we have a chance. We have to, so we’ll do it.”  
  
“Not the best plan.”  
  
Lyn shrugged. “It’s what needs to happen. We have to make a good impression and winning the damn thing is the most impressive thing we can do.”  
  
“Ha!” Cassie shot Lyn a disbelieving look. “Dude, you have a nidoran and an abra. Maybe, maybe you’ll have a nidorina and a kadabra by the time the tournament starts, but neither one will be that strong by then.”  
  
“Calm down. It’s not impossible. If we make good time, we can do our route in one and a half months, giving us ample time to train the pokemon we have and catch a few more as well. After that, we have one or two weeks until the thing starts and we can get some information on our possible enemies. That’s something we can start even now. You have internet on that thing, don’t you? We can look up what trainers registered and every trainer has their pokemon noted in the system. I already know that trainers like Pullo will be there and their teams are mostly known at this point. Depending on what they have and how long they’ve had them, it should be possible to plan for which pokemon they’d be likely to use.”  
  
“That’s a stupidly optimistic view. No amount of planning will bridge the gap between trainers like us, practically starting out for real now and people like Pullo. Not in two months. But I guess that’s better than a defeatist attitude.”  
  
_Do I say it?_ She really didn’t want to argue this early in but she also didn’t want to just be pulled along without voicing her opinion.  
  
“Also, while I am really happy and impressed by you having an offer by Sabrina, and I do understand why you would participate, it’s really not the same for me. I don’t have anything to gain, except maybe a humiliating defeat on camera. Really doubt I’d win the tournament, so the prizes aren’t really drawing me in and a likely early loss would harm my image.”  
  
Lyn nodded, not responding for a few seconds. “I understand your apprehension, but didn’t you say you wanted to stream your pokebattles? To raise your notoriety in that community? Well, what better exposure than doing well in the SYT, with all the eyes on you?”  
  
“Nothing, if I win. Everything if I don’t.”  
  
Lyn was frowning, “Why are you so sure you’ll lose? Mother mailed me your battle during your license exam and you were pretty good. You can’t tell me you got worse over the year.”  
  
“I also didn’t get much better and if you’re telling me I was tournament ready at that point, I’d say you’re a bit delusional.”  
  
“Seems to me you’d now have a really good motivation to improve over the next two months, to make for a good showing in the SYT. Besides, the top prizes aren’t everything. You don’t have to win the thing to be impressive, a good showing in general can be worth just as much.”  
  
_That would be a really good way of getting sponsors._ It wasn’t that she wasn’t tempted at all, she was, very much so. If she did well and impressed the people there, she’d get tons of fans and viewers. Sponsorships by firms and stores were also a real thing. Cameras, all the people in the crowd, screaming her name, cheering her on? She couldn’t deny the appeal. She looked at her pikachu, who had been walking alongside them for now and he stood up on two legs and puffed his chests, apparently rather enthusiastic for the tournament. Not that that was a surprise, Rush had taken a huge liking to her streaming and had become a part of them for months now. He took every opportunity to present himself and loved it when she read comments about him out loud.  
  
_Rush and Diva are pretty strong and would get stronger with two months of good training. No way those two wouldn’t impress the masses._  
  
“Well,” Cassie mused, running her thumb and indexfinger over her chin, “you aren’t wrong when you say that. It’s still a risk, mind you, and I guess I would have been happier to go for the Youth tournament next year. That said, the earlier I get my name and face out there, the better. And that of my babies, of course.”  
  
Lyn’s posture relaxed and she seemed to cheer up. “I’m glad we’ll be able to do this together. Training seriously with the two of us is going to do help both of us in the long run.”  
  
"Yeah,” Cassie agreed, but her mind was already on trying to plan an impactful strategy. Lyn gave her a weird look but didn’t say anything and soon enough, both of them returned to walking quietly, lost in their thoughts.  
  
\------------------------------------------  
  
Two hours later, they were well outside the city. There were several ways that connected to Saffron, like the highway for the buses and cars, the train rails and the marching ways.  
  
And then there were the trainer paths. Well-trotted roads through forests and wild land, without much human presence, where the pokemon roamed wildly. The Rangers kept a lot of eyes on them, of course. Regular patrols were sent out, to both protect the pokemon wildlife and to protect humans and their settlements. Cassie had listened to the countless time their mother had complained about the hours of the job and the way some people seemed almost suicidal in their idiocy and disregard for safety protocols in the wild.  
  
They were travelling on one such path. Since it was still relatively close to the city, the grass wasn’t as high on the sides of the road and the trees were rather wide apart, not yet the forest they would be in an hour or two. And yet, the occasional pokemon hushed around.  
  
So far, they had spotted two spearows and a rattata. Lyn hadn’t released a pokemon yet. From what Cassie understood, she had an abra, a magnemite and her starter the nidoran. With magnemite and nidoran tired and recovering and abra not being a fighter for a while yet, the task to defend them fell to Rush.  
  
_Easy._  
  
The spearows hadn’t really come near them, having seen Rush before he saw them and kept their distance. If one of them had wanted one, this would have been troublesome. Thankfully, neither of them did.  
  
The rattata now was much closer. They had sat down in the shadow of a big tree, leaning against its trunk, sipping water and eating nutrition bars. Rush was snacking on a few berries that Cassie had laid out for him. It were probably those that had brought it out of the underbrush. It nudged closer, its whiskers twitching. Feeling bad for it, Cassie had thrown it a small berry. It wasn’t a pokemon she’d want to own right now, not when they’d have to prepare for a serious tournament. They weren’t terrible fighters or anything but they were underwhelming on the competitive level and everything they did, there were stronger pokemon who could do better and had other stuff besides. Still, this one was cute and she wasn’t completely heartless.  
  
Rush, on the other hand, hadn’t liked the rattata. Right after Cassie had thrown it a treat, Rush had launched a small bolt of lightning. It didn’t hit it but it spooked it nonetheless and with a panicked squeak, it bolted.  
  
He then trotted forward, snatched the berry that Cassie had thrown and shot her a smug grin, making Cassie roll her eyes. “You’re such a jerk, you know that?” she scolded him, but was unable to maintain her stern expression. Rush seemed more amused as it jumped on her lap, giving her a rather self-satisfied smile and rubbed himself against her legs and stomach. “First you bully that poor thing and now you want to be petted?”  
  
_Such a scamp._  
  
Cassie couldn’t say no to him though. With a wry smile she started to run her hand through the fur on his back.  
  
“What the hell was that?” Lyn’s voice was sharp and Cassie turned her head to look at her younger sibling.  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“Your pikachu just attacked a wild pokemon like that.”  
  
“So? It didn’t harm it. Rush can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he’s harmless, really. The rattata was never in dange- ”  
  
“We want to capture pokemon,” Lyn interrupted her. “Eventually. I don’t give a damn about that rat, but what I do care about is your pikachu scaring away a pokemon I need for my team. We can’t afford to throw away our chances with rare ones like vulpix simply because your pikachu was feeling petty.”  
  
“Hey, he’s not stupid, okay. He knows.”  
  
Lyn probably wanted to say something more, Cassie could tell by her opening her mouth but she closed it, glaring at the ground and taking another sip from her flask.  
  
Cassie rolled her eyes. _Great_ , _she’s an even bigger buzzkill in person._ This wasn’t really how she had planned this whole trip thing to go.  
  
Rush, meanwhile, had glared at Lyn in turn. A few minutes of more petting relaxed it again though. She really hoped this wouldn’t become a thing where her pikachu and her sister would hate each other. This was going to be stressful enough as it is.  
  
She flipped open her pokecom and for a few seconds, she was able to completely forget about this tournament and sister thing.  
  
It truly was a beauty. It was the newest model and one of the more expensive ones. She had saved a year for it. She’d been streaming for a few years, and had gotten a sizeable following. She wasn’t exactly recognize-on-sight famous. Not yet, at least, but people in the scene generally knew of her. And she couldn’t really stop completely and expect to still have an audience when she came back, however long that took.  
  
So, she had found a compromise. This pokecom would allow her to record herself in a pretty high quality and then be able to upload it. The upload speed would vary, she knew, depending on the connection she’d get. The signal wouldn’t be everywhere but with all the pokemon centers and even some of the ranger stations littered around, she was rather confident she would at least get the opportunity to put up something every few days at least.  
  
It wasn’t streaming a full game but it was better than nothing. Besides, showing Kanto and its pokemon and all was bound to get some views. Not to mention her battle progress. Her fans watched her because she was really good at gaming and she’d have to be the same here.  
  
Winning was the goal, as it always was. Cassie played to win. Lyn was right when she said that winning was what mattered, on that the two agreed.  
  
She wouldn’t film herself today. No, that was for later, preferably when she had prepared something. But she did write a quick update on her website, explaining in a few sentences that she had begun her journey and that she would follow with a video soon. She also gave a quick shout-out to Elyse and Amy, saying how awesome it was to meet them. She finished that post by adding a selfie with both Rush, Lyn and her visible on it. Of course, Rush was striking a pose, having raises his small arms and letting a bit of electricity crackle on his cheeks.  
  
_What an attention-hog._  
  
Cassie had a small smile on her lips, having pocketed her pokecom again, as she gave Rush a spontaneous hug. “You and me, buddy,” she whispered, “you, me and Diva. We’re going to make it to the top.”  
  
Rush squeaked in agreement, cuddling into her.  
  
\------------------------------  
  
It was five hours later, around eight in the evening, right after it had become dark that they managed to reach Pokemon Tech. It was a surprisingly large complex. Three big buildings formed a large U, each twice the size of a pokemon center. The buildings themselves had been built nearly sixty years ago but they had been obviously renovated and painted with a fresh white coat, as were their roofs with a bold red. The pool was also new and there were three arenas outside, ten meters apart from each other. One of them was in use as two men seemingly a few years older than Cassie were having a duel but since no one was playing the role of referee, it probably was just a training session.  
  
And observing their performance for a few seconds, Cassie came to the conclusion that they needed as much training as they could get. The trainer with the corsola was utterly wasting it.  
  
“Those’re the supposed super-elites?” she asked her younger sister.  
  
Lyn shrugged. “As I said, the institution talks big but not everyone here is a master trainer. As far as I know, they can’t grant the license but there has been some debate on that lately.”  
  
They passed through the entrance and into the foyer, which had significantly more activity than outside. Around two dozen people were standing around, most of them waiting in front of the main desk, talking to one of the three people working there while the rest were scattered around the spacious room, chatting. It was loud and busy.  
  
“Huh, didn’t expect it to be this full.”  
  
“Think most of them are like us, just passing by. It’s secondary function as a hostel for people active in the woods around us is part of its income. This area has good pokemon and it’s easier to crash here rather than travel to Saffron and back every day.”  
  
“Do you think we’ll even get a room? Seems to be full, especially if you count the students.”  
  
Lyn started to walk towards the reception. “We should be fine. They don’t have that many students anyway and the buildings are big. Think studying here costs a good penny but its hostel part is cheaper. Now, during the tournament, then it might be difficult. But right now, nothing important is happening, at least as far as I know.”  
  
“Fair enough.”  
  
They took their place at the end of the queue, waiting for their turn.  
  
“Man, I’ve heard Tech is full of jerks,” Cassie said after a few minutes.  
  
Lyn snorted. “Where did you hear that?”  
  
“Told my viewers the rough route of our journey, and more than one wrote how much the Tech students sucked. There was a comment war, I think, about that but my mods killed it rather soon.”  
  
She shrugged. “It’s a private school and it prepares its students both, for the pokemon license and then later for league matches, but they can’t actually grant the license themselves, at least most of them can’t. It’s supposed to have comparable equipment to most gyms, probably better than some. It also has former high-ranking trainers doing the teaching and coaching.”  
  
“Huh.”  
  
“Most people in our gym didn’t like the school and its students. The guy who beat me,” her expression darkened when she remembered her loss again, but she managed to move on and continue, “probably came from here, or somewhere similar.”  
  
“So, what? You hate them as well?”  
  
“Not really. Don’t see a reason to worry. Saffron City gym is top notch and if any of their trainers and teachers were worth a damn, were truly skilled, then they'd be working alongside or for Sabrina or other gyms leaders instead. But they aren’t so they don't. So, no, just indifferent.”  
  
A small smile appeared on Cassie’s face. “Sounds to me someone is annoyed that they’re getting a rep for being good that you think is just empty hype.”  
  
A shrug was all the answer Lyn gave to that.  
  
"Maybe. Don't really care much about that. I just know it's a convenient first stop for us and that’s all it needs to be."  
  
"Hmm, true.” Cassie was silent for a bit before she spoke again. “Guess that explains why those two fighting outside,” and she made air-quotes when she said fighting, “were so bad at it. So, this is a glorified inn that kinda scams rich people on the side, did I get that right?”  
  
Before Lyn could answer, they were interrupted. “Hey!” a sharp voice from next to them yelled. They turned around to find a boy roughly Cassies own age with short black hair, dressed in jeans and a white shirt, glaring at them. “You better take that back.”  
  
“What?” Cassie wasn’t sure what he was so upset about.  
  
“What you said about this place. I’m training here. One of the teachers is my cousin.”  
  
Lyn was looking at him like he was the world’s biggest idiot. “Why would you brag about that?”  
  
He bristled. “I’m not bragging. I’m saying that you two assholes insulted me and my cousin. He’s a great trainer and is on his way to finish the gym circuit!”  
  
“Good for him,” Lyn said and then turned back to Cassie. “Yeah, you got that right earlier but it’s an excellent inn with great facilities.”  
  
_Wow that was cold._ Cassie was grinning. Who knew her sister had that kind of insulting capabilities in her. “It sure is convenient,” she agreed.  
  
The student however was turning red from anger. “I guess words won’t mean much to the likes of you two. I hate people like you gym brats, strolling right in and looking down on us.”  
  
“Look dude,” Cassie said, “We don’t really care about your hostel or your cousin. We’re just here to crash for the night and tomorrow we’ll be gone, so just relax, man. Chill.”  
  
“That’s it. If you’re so tough, how about proving it? You guys are from Saffron gym, right? We always get trainers like you come in here and talk shit. And they all turn out to be hot air and nothing else. Well, I won’t take it.”  
  
“She is. I’m from Pewter. You know, a real gym.” Cassie shot her sister a cheeky grin who just rolled her eyes at that.  
  
“Please, Sabrina would eat Brock for breakfast.”  
  
“Are you kidding me? Brock’s onyx. That’s GG right there.”  
  
Lyn didn’t seem all that impressed with the answer and raised an eyebrow but before she could reply, the guy interrupted.  
  
“You! Pewter girl! If you’re so tough, then let’s have a duel right now.”  
  
Cassie felt like she was having an online discussion about a subject she didn’t really care about but the person on the other side did.  
  
“Right now? I’m a bit tired, to be honest. Can I take a raincheck? And we do this some other time? How about in five years or so? Or, you know, never?”  
  
“Are you afraid to lose?”  
  
_A master of psychological manipulation, that one._  
  
“Yeah, that’s it. Shaking in my cute, stylish boots.”  
  
Suddenly, his eyes widened. “I recognize you,” he said and Cassie perked up. That hadn’t happened often. In fact, this would be the fourth time someone had recognized her. “You’re that shit streamer.”  
  
Now it was Cassie’s turn to frown but it wasn’t that unexpected. If there was someone who recognized her, chances were about fifty/fifty on them liking or hating her. “Yeah, that’s something I’ve never heard before.”  
  
“You’re just the type of person who’d make fun of a school like this, thinking yourself better.”  
  
Before Cassie could retort, Lyn cut in. “She is and she accepts.” Cassie whirled around, eyes wide to stare at her sister in astonishment. “Lead the way or did you intend to battle right here?”


	4. Chapter 4 - Cassie 2

The guy, looking at the two girls suspiciously, nodded, turned around and started to walk and to Cassie’s shock, Lyn actually started to follow him. Cassie hurried after her and grabbed her by her arm. “What the hell are you doing?” she hissed in her sister’s ear, trying to not be loud enough for him to hear them. “I don’t want to battle right now.”  
  
_And I’m getting sick of you volunteering me for things without asking me._  
  
Lyn looked at her blandly, decidedly unimpressed. “We want to improve, don’t we? What better way than to fight with as many different people as possible. You won’t always find willing idiots like this one and it’s not like the people here are completely without skill, so it should be a challenging fight. No one wants to lose but better against a no-name moron in a place where it doesn’t matter than an important match later on.”  
  
“Did you plan this? Talk trash about this stupid school and hope it would provoke someone here into a fight?”  
  
A slight smile appeared on Lyn’s lips. “Nothing that nefarious but once he started crying and complaining, it seemed to just make sense to make use of his idiocy.”  
  
Cassie swallowed her reply and just let out a loud sigh. “Man, you’re not making this easy. I bet you Amy would’ve been a lot easier to handle.”  
  
“I’d hope so, she’s only six.”  
  
He was leading them to another court outside, on the other side of the building. The difference was clear, as this field had ample lighting, with countless headlights shining on the fields from the walls of the buildings. There were also more people using them as almost all of the fields were occupied. Most people were wearing uniforms or gym clothes with the logo of the Tech institute branded on its back, but some were not. Probably people like them, just visiting for a short time.  
  
The guy went to an open field, talked to one older woman with long red hair, wearing gym suit. She had a whistle around her neck and clipboard in her hands.  
  
“Jim here tells me you want to battle,” she greeted them, her eyes narrowing a bit. He probably also told them why this battle was happening, and Cassie couldn’t imagine her liking some jerks talking shit about her workplace.  
  
“Yeah, why not,” Cassie said, shrugging. “I mean, I want to sleep and all, but how long could this take?”  
  
The guy, Jim, glared at her for this but the woman just raised an eyebrow. “How many pokemon?” she asked.  
  
“6 vs 6!” Jim demanded, and only now did Cassie see that he did have six pokeballs attached to his belt. All of them normal pokeballs, luckily. She’d have felt pretty stupid if he’d also pulled out a magmar out of his ass.  
  
“Relax, man. I only got four. And even that’s probably too much for a quick match. How about two on two?”  
  
“No, four on four then. We’re going to do this right, without you being able to squirm away saying that you didn’t use your best pokemon!”  
  
“Well, doesn’t really matter. Fine then. Let’s have some fun.” Then she got an idea. She had wanted to stream something, and this place should have good internet. “Hey, mind if I stream this?” At this, he perked up, a satisfied smile growing on his face.  
  
“A chance to humiliate you in front of your pathetic fans? Feel free. But no cutting or editing to make yourself look better. Live or nothing. No recording it and then altering it later to cover up your loss.”  
  
Cassie felt more than a bit insulted at that. “Not really my style, so don’t worry. I did say I wanted to stream, not record. Give me a second.” She booted up her pokecom, connected to the wi-fi and took her channel online. She quickly typed in a short notification.  
  
**Surprise live-stream of my first pokemon fight on the road to the SYT (surprise!). Enjoy because the guy I’m about to stomp probably won’t.**  
  
Then, she handed the pokecom to her sister, who was looking at her with an expression that Cassie couldn’t quite decipher. “Make sure you capture everything, alright? Don’t worry about capturing my good side, they’re all excellent.” Her sister nodded, amused and Cassie, satisfied, went back.  
  
They took their places at the opposing ends of the battlefield. It was just a plain earth field, nothing special about it. So, it suited her just fine for now.  
  
“Have you both have picked your pokemon?” the referee asked.  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Yes, Ms Grimm.”  
  
With that, both hurled their first pokeballs, releasing their pokemon. On Cassie’s side, the red pokepower revealed a koffing, a floating, purple sphere with countless craters all over its round body. Its wide mouth was open and grinning, its eyes focused on the enemy which revealed itself to be a phanpy. It was small, blue and had had large ears that flapped on both sides of its head. It had a trunk that had a red stripe on its bridge, the same red stripe that was also on each ear twice. It walked on all four legs and had a very short tail.  
  
_Never seen one of those before._  
  
“Don’t worry, girl,” she yelled to her pokemon, “Stay calm and take that scrub out. Usual start.” Her pokemon obeyed, immediately exhaling a generous amount of a disgusting brown cloud of poison that rushed towards phanpy. The small creature dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding the worst of it but its smell sensitive large trunk was a detriment in this case. It recoiled and winced. Koffings didn’t smell very nice from the start and the poison gas didn’t improve things.  
  
“Penny, wait for the right moment and then use that!” he yelled. “Until then, keep your distance.”  
  
Cassie wasn’t an expert on phanpys but she didn’t remember them having all that many long-range attacks. It was bad luck on his part, poison pokemon were a bit of a bitch for close combat pokemon to deal with. Come close and definitely get poisoned. Stay at range, be at the mercy of the poisonous long-range attacks with less accuracy but give up any chance of striking back.  
  
“Use sludge, Diva!” Diva hummed in agreement and proceeded to vomit sticky, purple muck in form of a pressured stream with a surprising reach. It was disgusting and toxic and wickedly effective. Cassie loved it.  
  
“Dodge!” Phanpy was already jumping before the order had been issued. Nothing would ever want to be hit by that attack.  
  
The second Diva’s attack stopped, the phanpy sprang into action. It curled up into a ball and started rolling at great speed towards the koffing. The rollout move, Cassie knew, was one of the better physical attacks. The speed and spin of the pokemon using it made being hit by it no small matter. That said, it was stronger the bigger and heavier the pokemon using it was and phanpy was thankfully small and relatively light. Still heavier than Diva but not tremendously so.  
  
The spin also provided a degree of protection from some attacks.  
  
_Not without its downsides, though._  
  
“Float aside and use smog.” Diva obeyed and thick, heavy, dark green fog welled out of the numerous craters all over her body. The smog was poisonous and smelled bad, even to Cassie. The distance phanpy had kept had allowed her to give the command to her pokemon in time and Diva had barely been able to float aside. Cassie let out a relieved sigh, even as the phanpy was turning for another attack. It was spinning so fast, it would be using its incredible sense of smell to aim. Well, now Diva had covered the field in toxic smog, slightly masking her own smell making it difficult to pinpoint her exact position. And the more the phanpy inhaled to know where to aim, the more poison would get in her system.  
  
Cassie turned to her sister, to the camera and gave it a cocky wink. That ought to get some laughs.  
  
Phanpy, after the second attack had missed as well, had stopped. It had a pained expression on its face and was panting. Diva, on the other hand, was floating with a smug expression on its face, as it was sneaking glances towards the pokecom and its camera.  
  
Cassie’s eyes were on the phanpy though. _Yes! It’s poisoned._  
  
And while that was a good sign, it didn’t necessarily mean a win just yet. It was still dangerous.  
  
“Nail it again, girl and then finish it,” Cassie said, and watched as Diva spit out another torrent of disgusting sludge, this time striking the poor thing right in the head, pushing it back a few inches. Jim’s orders to jump back fell on deaf ears as it was in no condition to listen. Diva stopped and floated as quickly as she could to the disoriented phanpy and slammed into it, making it collapse with a squeal on the ground, twitching, unconscious.  
  
“Round 1 is over, win goes to koffing,” the ref said, a frown on her lips. “Be sure to have Penny checked out thoroughly later, Jim. That was a lot of poison.” Jim nodded, lips pursed, looking annoyed.  
  
“Easy,” Cassie crowed, a bright smile on her face. “Continue or was that enough?”  
  
“You wish,” Jim spat back.  
  
Cassie shrugged. “Fine by me.” She returned the koffing. At the behest of the ref, Cassie picked her next pokemon and when the signal came, both released their next combatants.  
  
Cassie had chosen Lancer, her spearow whereas Jim had sent a mankey. Cassie had to smile. While it was by no means a guaranteed win, there was a type advantage for her here. Still, his mankey looked energetic and strong. It was jumping on its two legs, its tail swinging wildly. Its pink snout was twitching, probably because the poison from last round hadn’t fully vanished yet.   
  
No, its fur was shiny, its eyes focused and it looked ready to fight, this might be harder than she had thought.  
  
“Focus,” Jim ordered.  
  
“Take off and gain some height.”  
  
Both pokemon did as they were told, preparing their next attacks. This was, in its essence, a gamble, Cassie realized. In a lot of ways, Lancer was a glass cannon. If his attacks at full speed connected often enough or if they managed to get lucky and land a critical hit and cause an injury, yeah, they could take this. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be able to take all that many hits from the mankey, being roughly ten times lighter and all. Any injury he received would limit his mobility and flight, his one true advantage. She couldn’t forget that the advantage flying types had against fighting ones were that the latter had a hard time catching the former, being able to fly and all and few fighting types had all that many long-range attacks.  
  
Lancer, unfortunately, didn’t have all that many yet either. _Need to step up his training, now. This can’t stand._  
  
“Keep up your guard and get ready to dodge.”  
  
Jim’s order wasn’t surprising, well, guess it was time to roll the dice. “Go!” she snapped.  
  
Lancer, fluttering roughly ten meters over the ground until now, took to a nosedive, flapping his wings at high speed, his beak aimed forward. Cassie couldn’t see it but she knew his eyes would have this mean glint that could demoralize some pokemon. Unfortunately, mankey wasn’t one of them.  
  
Still, the mankey didn’t manage to dodge fully but enough to avoid a full hit. All Lancer managed was to make a small cut with his beak on its left cheek. The mankey didn’t even flinch, its angry eyes focused on Lancer as it had flown upwards again, this time circling the mankey from up high.  
  
_Better than nothing._  
  
There was no real need to give additional orders right now. Any advice she would have would be in the realm of “be careful” and less useful advice just didn’t exist.  
  
Lancer attempted the second dive and it was then that Jim reacted. “Now,” he just said. Mankey readied itself as it saw Lancer dashing towards it and just before Lancer hit it, mankey jumped and his arms lashed forward, managing to actually capture him. It then used the momentum of Lancer to whirl both of them around and then slammed the spearow on the ground headfirst. Lancer’s screech of pain was shrill and made Cassie wince.  
  
_Okay, fuck me, that was actually really impressive._  
  
“Return, Lancer. Too bad.” She recalled the poor bird who had crumbled on the ground and met the challenging smirk Jim now sported. “Gotta admit, that was a cool move.”  
  
“Thanks,” he said, his tone mocking. “You got one win but that’s it.”  
  
“Winner, mankey,” the ref said unnecessarily. “You going to switch him out, Jim?”  
  
“Nah, Phil is good. He’s going to handle the rest.”  
  
_Well, someone’s cocky._  
  
The ref nodded and turned to Cassie. “Your next one please.”  
  
There was really only one choice that made sense. She pulled out Diva’s pokeball again and threw it. “You’re up again, sweetie.” Diva, after her materialization, gave out something akin to a sigh, and gave Cassie an exasperated look to which she could only shrug. Diva turned her attention back to her new enemy, taking in who it was. Her eyes were meeting mankey’s feral ones but didn’t flinch.  
  
_The day she backs down from a pokemon like that is the day we should quit._  
  
“Clear smog,” Cassie said and a white fog streamed out of Diva’s mouth at great speed. Mankey jumped to the left on time and dashed forward on command. The strategy was clear. Get close enough too fast for Diva to react. Some strategies like that, common sense and thus obvious as they were, were rather easy to anticipate and Diva knew what to do.  
  
The second mankey had started to dash, she had stopped her attack and instead launched a different one. Once more, thick dark green smog vaped out of her holes from all over her body at all directions and mankey’s punch and himself passed through a cloud of poison. The karate chop did connect, and Diva let out a grunt of pain as it was hurled back by the force of the attack but in turn, mankey inhaled a lot of poison through its snout and had to stumble back, coughing, as it tried to regain his balance.  
  
Cassie and Jim shouted their next orders at the same time, but the coughing and pain from the poison made it harder for mankey to move so the next sludge attack managed to douse him from head to toe, covering him in poisonous goo.  
  
Cassie shot the camera a quick smile and used that opportunity to glance at Lyn, who was watching the match with an intense expression. Focusing back on the battle, Diva was content to float away, keeping some distance between them, forcing mankey to shamble after her and allowing the poison to do its job.  
  
She contemplated for a second whether to order her pokemon to use smokescreen to make it stumble around blind but decided against it. Right now, it helped her far more than him to know where his pokemon was. No need to risk the mankey getting a lucky hit in by obstructing her own sight as well. With mankey defeated, he would be down two pokemon, whereas she was down one and had one already a bit tired and damaged. The advantage was hers as long as she played it safe.  
  
_That meant keeping away from mankey for now. Besides, Diva could use this time to recover a bit._  
  
Jim realized the futility, knowing that Cassie would not allow his mankey to come near her pokemon again, not now that mankey had lost his speed. “Good job,” he praised his mankey and returned it to his pokeball.  
  
“Winner of the round is koffing. Jim, you can’t use your mankey again this match.” Jim nodded. “Same as before, make sure to get both of them thoroughly checked out, poison damage is no joke. And you, do you want to switch your pokemon out?”  
  
“Nah, we’re good.” By now, Diva had lost her element of surprise and was already tired besides. Best to get one more poison attack in.  
  
She nodded, the frown on her face having deepened. “Very well. Jim, your next pokemon please.”  
  
“You just wait,” he said, “this ain’t over yet!”. With that, he released a flaffy. Its wooly fur that covered its head, neck and some of its upper body was white. Its exposed skin was a bright pink and its oddly cylinder-shaped ears were black and pink striped, just as its long tailed that ended with an azure ball. It bleated, the voice somehow hoarse and shrill at the same time, muscles tensing as it readied itself.  
  
“Thunder shock!” he ordered, and its fleece cackled with electricity before it launched at Diva who managed to dodge in time. This was going to be difficult. The electricity, if the flaffy got lucky, could ignite the poisonous gasses that allowed Diva to float. On the other hand, Diva had trained against Rush over the last year, aware of that particular weakness. And while her gasses hadn’t become less flammable, she did get better at reading and then dodging electric attacks.  
  
There were no guarantees, of course and Diva wasn’t exactly the fastest pokemon and electricity attacks were notorious for their speed. Only way to dodge them was to know where and how they arced and react accordingly.  
  
Easier said than done in the heat of combat, but Diva’s eyes were focused on the sparks of lighting on the fleece. “Dodge and attack,” Cassie ordered. It really was the best they could do. Flaffys were only marginally faster than koffings and they were really basically the same type of fighter, only their element differed. _To be fair though_ , Cassie mused, _flaffys can tank a bit more damage._  
  
Diva proceeded to do just that. Before the flaffy could resort to a new attack, purple sludge spewed from Diva’s mouth and the electro pokemon surprised them both by dashing forward, ducking under the attack, readying another of her own. Diva expelled gas from her craters and tried to swerve to the right but a bolt of lightning hit her too fast to dodge and she howled in pain.   
  
It was now too close for Diva to be able to dodge reliably but on the other hand, the flaffy was also close enough to have trouble dodging the gas attacks. “More!” Cassie yelled and even through the pain, Diva didn’t stop generating the gas, she even increased it and a wave of white smog washed over the flaffy, making it cough. Not to be deterred though, it pushed through, slamming on its arms against Diva, before following up with another thunder shock, this time igniting some of the gas and a small explosion split the two fighters apart. Flaffy was singed and breathing a bit hard with the occasional cough rocking through its body and while Diva was still hovering, she certainly didn’t look good with all the small burns covering her.   
  
_Yeah, that’s enough._ Cassie returned Diva, giving the pokeball a small peck. “Well done, gorgeous,” she whispered to it.  
  
“Fight goes to flaffy, you can’t use that koffing in this fight any more.” Cassie nodded. “Jim, are you switching your pokemon?” The flaffy, while still in fighting condition, had been poisoned. No surprise there, it had been released on an already heavily contaminated field and then got up close with a koffing. Cassie allowed herself a small grin. Her starter had taken out two of his pokemon and all but guaranteed the defeat of his third. No, her main girl was as awesome as she was beautiful.  
  
Jim had no doubt noticed that as well. “No, gonna switch him out.” With a bitter expression on his face, he returned his flaffy.  
  
“You can still use him later on,” the ref reminded him and he nodded. Both trainers then picked their next pokemon and released them for the fifth round of the match.  
  
On Cassie’s side, a purple two-meter snake with yellow eyes and a yellow rattle-tail end started hissing as she raised her head from her coil, flicking her tongue in out and out. Jim on the other hand called forth a small plant pokemon with a yellow bell-shaped head and a body thinner than most pens she owned, with two green leaves for arms and small roots for feet, wobbling left and right.  
  
_Ekans against a bellsprout, not the best matchup._ It was too small to be reliably trapped by Medusa and could wiggle out relatively easy and in fact attack way better from up close like that. On the other hand, the size difference should allow for effective physical attacks. Medusa slamming herself against the damn weed was crude but Cassie figured still effective.  
  
“You’ve got a lot of poison pokemon,” Jim said, a bit of frustration bleeding into his voice.  
  
“What can I say, I do love me some status effects.”  
  
He laughed, “You know, you’re actually better than I assumed, but that ends here. Greenbean here will be the end of line for you.”  
  
_What a name. I love it._  
  
“Talk shit, get hit, my man.”  
  
“You were talking shit about my school!” His voice flared and got louder.  
  
Cassie shrugged, “Then be better at hitting. Whatever, can we finish this now? This has gone long enough and I do want to sleep sometime today.”  
  
“Fine, have it your way. Attack!” With that, Greenbean the bellsprout sprung into actions as its tiny feet started a mad dash towards Medusa.  
  
“Defend.” Obeying the order, Medusa let out a loud screech, making the plant pokemon flinch in the midst of its attack. It was just a second, but it did cost it some momentum and the ekans exploited that by shooting forwards, opening her maws, revealing gleaming, poisonous teeth, ready to bite down.  
  
The bellsprout was quick to dodge by ducking and leaping forward, rolling under the attack. It then extended two long, green vines from under its leafy arms which wrapped themselves around Medusa’s face, effectively closing her mouth shut. She let out a muffled hiss and tried to shake herself free and while she did manage to whirl the light plant pokemon around, the vines remained in place, tightly wrapped around.  
  
_Well, that was annoying._  
  
“Sleep,” Jim said and Greenbean released a fine, green powder from its bell-mouth and let it rain down over Medusa.  
  
“Leap out!” Medusa obeyed and hurled her body of the worst of the cloud and remained in motion, dashing around the arena, desperately trying to open her mouth. The good news was for now, the sleeping powder hadn’t worked. The bad were that the bellsprout was still vomiting that stuff up and while the momentum they were traveling at protected Medusa from being hit for the most part, it wasn’t good that the whole field was getting covered with pollen.  
  
_They really need to decontaminate this field afterwards._  
  
Then, a stroke of luck, the vines around her maw got lose and Medusa was able to shake the damn weed off and it landed elegantly on its feet, wobbling almost tauntingly, a smug expression on its dumb face.  
  
_I hate that thing._ “Bite its head off,” Cassie snapped and Medusa obeyed, leaping once more forwards. This time, the plant pokemon couldn’t completely dodge, since the pokemon had been much closer. It managed to protect its head by of Medusa’s teeth tore into its left leaf-arm. It screeched as Medusa lifted in the air, shook her head wildly managed to throw the thing on the ground. It managed to flip in the air and land on its feet, its wobbling no longer the elegant rocking but a more frantic shaking.  
  
It was also pissed off as it immediately fired off another vine, this time hitting Medusa right in the face and its second vine whipping into her right eye. Medusa shrieked in pain, throwing its head back, exposing her yellow underbelly. The vines shot forward once more, wrapped themselves around her head and pulled her body with full force to the ground. Cassie could see some blood there and she immediately recalled her ekans, the beam from her pokeball enveloping in red energy and returning into it.  
  
_FUCK!_  
  
“Round goes to bellsprout. Guest can’t use her ekans anymore. And you need to get it checked immediately after this fight, that injury looked serious.”  
  
The smug smile on his face was pretty wide now. “See, I told you. This is the end. And in your words, you talked shit and now you’re getting hit pretty hard.”  
  
Cassie forced a smile on her face, anger boiling in her stomach. “Look at who’s getting overconfident, having only two poisoned pokemon left.”  
  
“That’s still two pokemon to one of yours.”  
  
“Oh, but what a pokemon that is,” she promised.  
  
_He wants the gloves off? Wish fucking granted._  
  
“Are you keeping bellsprout in?” the ref asked Jim, who was rolling his eyes at Cassie.  
  
“Nah, take a rest, Greenbean. Your part should be over.” With that he returned it and picked up another pokeball. “You ready to lose?”  
  
Cassie laughed, turned to her sister with the recording pokecom, noticing her frowning in concentration. _Seems like little sis is starting to get worried. Well, time to finish this._ She shot the pokecom a large smile, gave her sister a wink and plucked Rush’s pokeball from her belt.  
  
“You know what to do,” she said and released her pikachu who had initially jumped out with a bored look but was now eying the rereleased flaffy with some derision.  
  
At the ref’s signal, both pokemon went into motion, only the flaffy’s wobbly sprint on its two legs paled in comparison to Rush’s mad dash on his four. Electricity crackled on Rush’s cheeks and flaffy’s fleece and since they had closed the distance both attacks connected and lighting struck both pokemon. Flaffy made small grunt whereas Rush let out a satisfied smirk.  
  
“Fuck. Dodge!” Jim yelled, having realized now that Rush was one of the electric pokemon that were outright immune to electric attacks. In fact, they made his own stronger. Bursting with more energy, Rush dove into the flaffy’s face, an orb of lighting, yellow, orange and gold converging floating between his paws and slammed it into the enemy. The flaffy cried in pain but Rush didn’t stop there. Dashing forward, he slammed headfirst into flaffy’s stomach, hurling the pokemon a few feet back and he followed it up with yet another quick attack. The flaffy managed to raise its small arms just in time to protect its face but it didn’t help much. The small arm gave out with a loud crunch Rush slammed into its face before it could scream in pain.  
  
“Stop!” the referee roared and Rush trotted back to Cassie’s side, satisfaction oozing from every step. Jim had hurried to flaffy’s side, as had the ref. Checking the pitifully mewling pokemon, the ref stood up, shooting Cassie and Rush a glare. “Keep your Pikachu under control, it broke flaffy’s arm.”  
  
“Hey, don’t be mad at us. We didn’t send in a tired, poisoned pokemon into battle. This can happen in a fight. Besides, you didn’t say anything when his pokemon injured my ekans.”  
  
The ref seemed to disagree but no rules had been broken. Only bones. Jim, after having returned flaffy to its pokeball, was staring at Cassie, face completely still as if it was carved from stone.  
  
“That pikachu is going down,” he promised, voice calm.  
  
“Please, try.” Rush also chimed in with a mocking chirp, not seeming the least bit troubled. In fact, he seemed to be looking forward to the next fight, as electricity sparkled on his cheeks and it was preening with an eye towards the pokecom camera.  
  
Jim released his bellsprout again and opposed to his flaffy, it seemed to endure the poison a lot better. It made sense to Cassie, seeing as it was also a plant. Still, despite the poison, this was not going to be an easy battle. Plant had a bit of an advantage against electro pokemon as they were good at enduring their attacks.  
  
Still, Cassie had no doubt they were going to win this.  
  
“Begin.”  
  
And once more, Rush dashed forward. Greenbean tried to hit him with a vine but Rush dodged them easily. On the other hand, when he got in striking range and turned mid dash to hit him with his tail, the bellsprout jumped over the attack and lashed out with his second vine attack, this time striking Rush across the back. Rush let out a rather high-pitched grunt but endured and retaliated with a quick but weak thunder shock attack, hitting his enemy point blank.  
  
Greenbean ignored the attack and expelled green sleeping dust from his wide mouth, but Rush was quick enough to dart away, instantly dashing over his starting position, eyes focused on the bellsprout, ready to dodge at the smallest movement.  
  
“Let him come, we have time,” Cassie reminded him. Rush didn’t really like to wait, he was more of an attacker but he obeyed. Bellsprout attacked a few times with his vine whip but at that distance, it was easy for Rush to dodge. A quick glance told Cassie that Jim was looking nervous and a bit desperate. He was well aware that while his bellsprout seemed to power through the poison well enough for now, that that was just a matter of time before it became too much for even him.  
  
“Get close!” he ordered and Greenbean rushed forward. Cassie knew that the smarter move would be to move around and let him chase Rush around but that’s not how the two of them rolled.  
  
“Take him down,” she said and Rush knew what to do. With an enthusiastic squeak, Rush summoned another orb of lighting hovering in front of his face, ready to repeat his earlier success. Rush waited until the last second, just when Greenbean, once he came close enough to extend his two vines from below his arms to dash forward, weave under the vine whips and slam the orb against his head. The bellsprout hissed in pain as the electricity burned and exploded. He was able to work through the pain though as his vines wrapped themselves around Rush, now that they were so close that he couldn’t dodge and started to squeeze. His mouth also started to produce green pollen that slowly trickled out.  
  
_Too close._   
  
“Electrocute him!” Rush strained his body to push against the vines and then just let electricity cover his own skin. Bellsprout screamed, the pollen disappeared, as it was getting hit by the full blast point black. After a few seconds of just taking all the electrical current Rush was generating, it was forced to let go. Burns were covering a lot of his body and its right leaf arm was crumbled and torn, another crippling injury in this match, making him stumble backwards. The pikachu rushed forward, using his moment to slam his tail against the plant pokemons head and made him slam on the ground. Just as he was trying to stand up, Rush was standing over it and slammed into his body once more, this time putting it down for good.  
  
“The fight is over. Pikachu wins and this makes Cassie the winner of this match.”  
  
“You fucking psycho!” screamed Jim, “What kind of trainer are you?” He had already run to his bellsprout and returned him. Stasis inside the pokeball was better than leaving him out. “You crippled two of my pokemon and poisoned all of them!”  
  
“I don’t understand why’re you so shocked that pokemon get hurt in battles.”  
  
Before Jim could retort, the referee walked to her, her expression a heavy frown. “You pikachu is too vicious,” she said. “Injuries happen, poison is part of the game but your pikachu is cruel and does more damage than necessary, after the fight’s pretty much done.” She had a bitter expression on her face. “This was also on me, I should’ve called the fight earlier, and since this wasn’t anything official and we have a healing station right in the house, this isn’t too bad but if you aren’t careful, you can get into some real trouble. There’s not pulling any punches and then there is your pikachu.”  
  
Cassie nodded, not really listening. She hoped Lyn had turned the camera off after the battle had ended. She didn’t want that lecture going online as well but maybe it would be a good thing? “Yeah, sure,” she said, “I’ll have words with him.” _Words of praise._  
  
The referee was unconvinced but didn’t say anything else on the topic. “Anyway, follow me you two, your pokemon need some care.”  
  
An hour later, Cassie and Lyn were in the room they grudgingly received after the fight. Cassie and Rush hadn’t exactly endeared themselves to the faculty/staff. Still, they had gotten a room, even if it was probably their worst. Not that they were going to complain, it wasn’t a bad room by any means. The beds were comfortable, it was clean and relatively cozy. It just lacked a TV was rather small for two people. Lodging, food, medical treatment for their pokemon and most importantly internet. Cassie stretched, lying on her bed. All pokemon but Lyn’s abra were undergoing treatment over the night and she was sleeping on one of the two chairs in the room.  
  
“You know, I think I could get used to this. Traveling around, stomping fools, living the life of adventure.”  
  
Lyn chuckled but didn’t look up from her small leather-bound notebook in which she was scribbling in. “If you keep your temper and don’t take some enemy pokemon lightly due to a type advantage, you just might.”  
  
“Has been a while since I’ve done this, need a bit to get back into it.”  
  
“You will,” she made it sound like a threat. “We’re going to win that tournament and today was a nice start for you on that.”  
  
“You really serious about that?”  
  
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Lyn looked up now, meeting her eyes, her head a bit tilted. “Sabrina sponsoring me would mean my guaranteed ticket in the big leagues and the most reliable way to achieve that is to win the tournament.”  
  
“You keep saying that as if that’s so easy.”  
  
“It’s not easy. That’s the point. If it were easy, there’d be no meaning to it.” Lyn’s voice was now louder. “That’s what makes it worth doing.”  
  
“Heh,” Cassie wasn’t sure how to reply, “fair enough.”  
  
“But seriously, good showing for the most part today.”  
  
“Thanks.” Cassie then took out her pokecom, to check her channel and the comments of the video. It had a few thousand views already and roughly a hundred comments. Apparently, a few jokers had also drudged up a picture of Rush, dozing cutely on her bed that she had posted a few months back and captioned it with “Does this look like the face of mercy to you?”. The fans had apparently quite enjoyed the performance. Diva had been the crowd-pleaser and backbone of the team as expected and Rush had already been popular even before he had crushed two enemy pokemon right after the other.  
  
**Thanks for all the love, guys. Looks like a good start for us** , she typed and then closed the gadget. Day had gone differently than she had expected but she couldn’t complain. She got to meet her youngest sister for the first time and whatever Elyse was to her in terms of familial relation, she was travelling with her sister who was a bit more stuffy and stiff than she had been expected but she was going to see the world and leave her mark, she and her team.  
  
Yeah, things were looking pretty good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: Cassie was inspired a lot by D.Va from Overwatch which is why she’s a streamer and gamer at heart. (Not going to lie, her koffing using self-destruct while she yells “nerf this” is very tempting to write at some point) She had some interesting luck with the dice as well, particularly with pikachu. As you can clearly see, she kinda got the team rocket starter pack and heck, she even rolled for a meowth encounter on the next chapter, with the option of getting one. We’ll see how her team develops, she’ll get something fun next chapter.
> 
> Her team is as follows
> 
> Cassie: Diva the Koffing (levitate, 35/68 EP), Medusa the Ekans (Shed Skin, 36/38 EP), Lancer the Spearow (Sniper, 26/39 EP), Rush the Pikachu (Lightning rod, 36/63 EP)


	5. Chapter 5 - Faze Interlude

It had been two days ever since his failed exam and he still felt like throwing up. The looks of the other students, the utter dismissal of Sabrina, who hadn’t even felt the need to address him at all and the lecture he had gotten from her right-hand woman were still haunting him.  
  
Worse of all, that chilling, almost disgusted glare she had directed at him. Why had he even tried to say anything?  
  
_Stupid, stupid, stupid._  
  
Why had he been so stupid? Why did he release Blaze? He knew he wasn’t going to listen. He knew it had been a bad idea. He had sworn to himself that he wouldn’t use Blaze in this thing.  
  
Until he had panicked when his starter had been defeated, in his first fight. Until he had doubted that he could win against that girl with Remy, something the drowzee still hadn’t forgiven him for.  
  
“Stop worrying, dear. Brooding doesn’t suit you.” He looked up from the window he was staring out of, to face his mother, who had raised an eyebrow and had a slight smile on her face. On her lap was her sneasel, sleeping, while she was running her fingers through his deep purple fur, the bright blue nail polish flashing through at times.  
  
“Yes, mother,” he was quick to reply, “I’m sorry.”  
  
“You’ll get your chance and this time I’d like for you to avoid making such a stupid mistake again. Really, I don’t know what Tako was thinking, giving you Blaze. You’re far from ready for a pokemon such as him.”  
  
That stung more than he wanted to admit but he couldn’t exactly dispute that.  
  
“But are you sure about this?”  
  
Faze nodded, looking his mother directly in the eyes, meeting her brown eyes with his own. “Yes, I need to do this.” _I need to defeat her for real._  
  
She sighed, leaning back against her seat. “Very well, you know your father and I are behind you on this but you have to be aware of the consequences.”  
  
Faze had a hard time caring about things like that. All he could think about were the expressions his parents had when had come home to tell them about the results of the day or rather, when they had already watched it before he had arrived. Apparently one of the journalists’ present had been paid to forward them a copy right after the matches had wrapped up and he had come home to two rather disappointed parents, even if they had tried to hide it.  
  
“I’m sure, mother,” he repeated, this time more forcefully, his annoyance seeping into every word at which her worried gaze transformed into a glare.  
  
“Watch your tone, young man!” she snapped back, making him sit straight, before he looked on the ground.  
  
“Sorry,” he mumbled, his voice not much louder than a whisper.  
  
His mother had switched seats, not sitting right next to him as she put an arm over his shoulder and pulled him to her in a soft hug, brushing a hand through his pair.  
  
“Oh darling, you’re such a dramatic child, I don’t know who you got it from. Fine, you won’t hear another word from me. We respected your wish and got you this second chance and the second this train stops, you will get your try. After that, it’s up to you how you’ll deal with all this. If you make it, you might even get to go to that little tournament of yours.”  
  
Faze knew that his mother meant what she said. If Sabrina got offended at the idea of him undermining her decision and going to get his license elsewhere, it would be up to him to deal with that. Personally, Faze thought his chances weren’t that bad, Sabrina generally didn’t really care about people like him so he had a hard time imagining that she would waste any time or effort on him, but even if she did, what could she do? Not accept his challenge later on in the gym circuit but that was fine. Strictly speaking, you really only needed eight badges and Johto and Kanto had a combined number of sixteen badge certified gyms, leaving more than enough. Sure, the Swamp Badge had more prestige than most badges but it was just a badge in the end. No one really cared which eight one had later on. Few people went for the full run and while it was certainly advantageous to skip a stage during the Indigo Championship, again, not really necessary.  
  
It was well worth to pass now and compete in the SYT. To redeem himself.  
  
Amidst these thoughts, the door of the train compartment opened, and a man entered. Where his mother was tall and had long flowing brown hair that went to her shoulders, his father was short, shorter than him and his brown hair had receded to almost baldness. Where his mother dressed in clothes that were tailored just for her, he was wearing sturdy cargo pants and a blue polo shirt that he knew his father hated. But his muscular body made him appear taller and more imposing than he was, and the six ultra balls on his belt were enough to make anyone pause.  
  
“Pah, can you believe how much they charged for one sandwich? Ten bucks! For one sandwich! And it wasn’t even good. The gall to demand that outrageous sum without any shame or guilt whatsoever is astounding.”  
  
“I hope you haven’t accosted the poor staff because you’re a hopeless miser,” said his mother, not much impressed with his attitude.  
  
“Of course not, poor boy isn’t to blame for the prices. It’s leeches like your uncle.”  
  
_And here we go_.  
  
“Is he now?” All her focus was now on him and even her sneasle had woken up and was staring.  
  
He sat down on the place his mother had left only a few minutes ago with such aplomb that the whole seat rattled, making the sneasle hiss at him, which he ignored. His father had long gotten used to that.  
  
“I’m surprised they don’t charge extra for pokemon in pokeballs, seems like the kind of greedy thing that Oscar would do. Then again most people have only so many kidneys to sell.”  
  
“I’ll be sure to convey the idea to him. Maybe he’ll name it after you, even? The Tako-Tax, has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”  
  
“Oh relax, Ally, don’t worry, I’ll behave later.”  
  
“Of that, I have no doubt.”  
  
He laughed, winking at his son. “Okay, okay, message received. Shutting up about that now.” Ally gave a satisfied smile as she changed seats once more and sat next to her husband, giving him a quick peck on the left cheek.  
  
“Good boy,” she murmured and allowed her pokemon to crawl once more on her lap.  
  
The father turned his attention back to Faze. “And you’re still determined to go through with this?” he asked.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Just when his father opened his mouth to ask a follow-up question, his mother put her hand on his knee, met the gaze of her husband and said, “He is sure.”  
  
Tako frowned. “Very well, but I want to note that this is a mistake. I’m not one to play politics and the like but it’s important to at least try to not openly antagonize gym leaders like that.”  
  
Ally snorted. “Listen to your father, Faze. He never antagonized a gym leader and knows what he is talking about.”  
  
Faze had to grin at that. His father had made enemies out of Koga and Lance pretty early on in his career and had carefully maintained said rivalries with the care of an obnoxious gardener.  
  
“That’s different,” he replied, crossing his thick arms. “Both of these idiots are inbred wimps with more money than sense, all wrapped up in their bullshit pedigree’s and whatnot. Ha, I remember when Koga was spouting that nonsense about bloodlines in pokemon.”  
  
“Dear, you married a woman with more money than either one of them.”  
  
“Don’t remind me, Lance sent me obnoxious wedding gifts for three years, reveling in the irony.”  
  
“He always was something of a scamp.”  
  
“The difference is,” he repeated louder, shooting both Faze and his wife an unimpressed look, “that I was questioning and challenging their views. You are challenging the duty they are charged with fulfilling and that is to see whether or not a person is ready to become a trainer. By going first to Sabrina and then when not liking the answer going elsewhere, you’re making a rather loud statement, one that many won’t appreciate.”  
  
_What’s the difference?_  
  
“I can’t be the first one in doing so.”  
  
“You’re not,” he said, frustration bleeding into his voice as he ran a hand through his short hair, “well, it’s really what you make of this. If you get the license now and then do well in the next few months, then everything is fine. Sabrina will be openly proven wrong though and it all depends on how she takes it. You get the license and do badly? Sabrina will be not only proven right, your reputation will be forever marred as both an incompetent and a child who can’t see his own faults. Not to mention this will make the gym who gave you the license look like crap and I doubt they’ll appreciate it. So yeah, best case you antagonize only one gym leader, worst case two and you’ll be the idiot of the year.”  
  
“So, you think I’ll do badly?”  
  
“That’s not what I’m saying.”  
  
_Yes, it is._  
  
“I’m saying you’re taking an unnecessary risk. Just wait the few months, get a bit stronger, learn to control Blaze in a good environment for it. You won’t have the facilities and resources to make a magmar listen to you on the road.”  
  
“You should have waited with the magmar, dear,” Ally chided him, “it was beyond clear that he wasn’t ready. Blaze is too proud to listen to a beginner.”  
  
Tako gave his wife a long look who met his stare until he looked away, grumbling. “Yeah, probably, but what’s done is done.”  
  
“I will take this test. Whitney’s people have agreed, yeah?”  
  
“They have.”  
  
“Then I’ll take it, win, and then do well. Sabrina wasn’t wrong, I made a mistake but one I won’t repeat and I need to show that.”  
  
His father wanted to argue more but saw the look on his face and shut his mouth. “Dear, let him do this. It’s his choice. As I told him before, we will help but he’ll live with the consequences of his choices.”  
  
“Those might be that he’ll never get to truly compete and burn a lot of bridges. I might have beef with Koga but he would never bar me from entering a tournament. If anything, he’d want me to, so he can battle me and shut me up that way. This won’t be the case if he professionally antagonizes or embarrasses one of them. If he’s widely considered a trainer not worth having at tournaments and the like.”  
  
“And that will be that. Poke-battling is not the only career path open to him.”  
  
“You just want him to work for you.”  
  
“Why yes, that is an excellent idea. Good call, dear.”  
  
“You can’t let him run into this simply because you’d prefer him at your side.”  
  
“Don’t be ridiculous, I don’t want him to fail but he has his mind set on this and he won’t budge.”  
  
“Clearly you aren’t bothered by the thought of him working for you.”  
  
“Oh yes, what a selfish monster I am for wanting my only son to work alongside me in a safe, interesting and not to mention extremely lucrative job.”  
  
_Boring and soulless as well._  
  
“So is being a league trainer.”  
  
She rolled her eyes at that but didn’t reply.  
  
Faze felt his stomach churning again. It always boiled down to this. His father would like for him to be good at battling while his mother didn’t exactly mind but would rather have him work for the family firm.  
  
Ignoring his parents bickering, he closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths until he had calmed down enough that he didn’t feel like throwing up anymore. He looked out of the window. No, he would try this and hopefully would show them all that he could do this.  
  
_Just one more chance. Get the license, train for two months and then do well in the SYT._  
  
He had already checked the names that had already signed on for the tournament and he had been happy to see the name Lyn Raine, the girl his magmar had defeated. Now, if only he could fight her again and defeat her in such a way that made it clear that he wasn’t just some rich kid.  
  
He had seen the way the others had looked at him. How they had whispered. Right from the beginning, when they had seen his great ball, they had immediately judged him and declared him a pampered rich kid who only made it this war due to his family wealth.  
  
And right in the first fight, this girl had made him look like an idiot. She had beaten his horsea with a freaking nidoran, a nidoran female at that, and her magnemite had been dangerously close to pull off a win despite the type disadvantage.  
  
The humiliation had burned. They all had believed she should have won, just because she had a few good ideas.  
  
_If Blaze had listened to me, I would have won regardless. Right?_  
  
He needed to prove it to all the others and to himself that he was his own man, that he could carve his own path in the poke-battling world. And for that, he needed the license and Blaze’s obedience.  
  
_I will prove everyone wrong at the SYT. They will remember my name._  
  
  
\---------------------------------------  
  
  
  
  
Three days later, Faze was sitting in a conference room at the Goldenrod City Gym. It wasn’t a big room, just a round table with enough space for a dozen people. One wall was covered by a huge screen and the blue carpet looked fancy. The rest of the room was bizarrely plain, with only a potted plant in the corner and no pictures at the walls.  
  
It wasn’t the most inviting room.  
  
The other three people in the room didn’t help matters.  
  
One was the reason he had come here. A young woman only a few years older than him, dressed in blue shorts, a white top and an extravagant golden belt that slightly clashed with the rest of her outfit but sported two, shiny ultra balls. She had short, pink hair with two spiky pigtails. Pink eyes that just stared at the plant as she was leaning on the table with one of her arms supporting her chin. It couldn’t be more obvious that she was bored and didn’t want to be here.  
  
It seemed Whitney hadn’t really agreed to do this but rather that his parents had spoken with one of the people working for Whitney, who in turn had organized this meeting.  
  
Next to her on each side was an older gym employee. One was a man named Thomas, dressed in overalls of the gym. He looked older than 50, some of his black hair had started turning white at the edges. He was a portly gentleman, with quite a belly that made the gym overall quite frankly a bad choice on him.  
  
On Whitney’s other side sat a woman in her early thirties, blonde, with long hair that reached to her lower back. Green eyes stared through glasses at him. She was also dressed in the Gym clothes, but she did make it look better than her colleague.  
  
They had introduced themselves as Alonzo Gilbert and Ada Jensen, two names Faze was sure he wouldn’t remember.  
  
“So, what’re you here for exactly?” asked Alonzo in a surprisingly deep voice that Faze hadn’t expected out of that man.  
  
“I want to take the trainer license test.”  
  
The man nodded, “Very well. You can do so tomorrow.”  
  
Faze was taken aback. He had expected to grovel a bit, to plead his case. To convince them. Why was this so easy? _What did my parents promise them?_  
  
“Just like that?”  
  
Alonzo nodded, his double chin slightly wobbling. “This is a pokemon gym, is it not? What we desire most of all is to make it possible that as many responsible and goodhearted young trainers such as yourself get to experience the joy that is pokemon in the fashion their hearts desire. How else are we supposed to create a better world if it is not with acts of kindness?”  
  
“And you think I’m such a person?”  
  
“We saw the video of your fight. You trusted your pokemon. You saw that you wouldn’t won otherwise against that young lady and used the winning strategy. Rather than sending a pokemon into a fight they couldn’t win, you spared it that needless loss and instead went for a riskier strategy which paid off in the fight. What other conclusion should we draw from this?” A gentle smile was on his face and Faze felt hope blooming in his chest.   
  
“But…but Sabrina said-”  
  
“We would not dare criticize an esteemed gym leader such as Sabrina,” started the woman, Ada, her expression still stern, “but her interpretation on this issue is just that, an interpretation and not the only possible one. Besides, she is known to be stricter than most of her colleagues and not always to the benefit of the League.”  
  
“I’m already bored Ada, let’s wrap this up.” Whitney interrupted and leaned back in her chair, putting her hands in the pockets of her shorts as she met his eyes. “What those two are trying to say, politely that is, is that you got shafted by Sabrina and I feel it’s my duty as a gym leader to help out people like you. But the thing is, Sabrina can be a bit difficult about things like this, so before we put out our necks for you, we’d like to know what you’d do if Sabrina were to make trouble.”  
  
Faze felt lost, his head was spinning and his mouth was drier than it had ever been. What could he possible say here? It’s not like he could actually do anything at that point.  
  
“I-I don’t know,” he finally rasped.  
  
“Well, that’s disappointing,” Whitney was frowning, “I can see why my two minions here,” the so-called minions didn’t show any reaction to that, “kept saying that we shouldn’t really bother with you. I mean, here we are offering to bat for you for nothing and you wouldn’t even stand up for yourself if Sabrina made some fuss about your license?”  
  
“Of course I would! I deserved that license!” He did! She had said so herself not even a minute ago. He needed to be more forceful and confident. He couldn’t keep backing down!  
  
“Well, that is good to hear,” she drawled, a slight smile on her face. “So if you manage to get your license tomorrow, what would you aim for, the SYT perhaps or something else?”  
  
“Yeah,” he confirmed, “I would. I will go there and prove everyone wrong. By then, Blaze will obey me fully and my other pokemon will be stronger as well.” _Hell, I might even use the psyduck, show up Sabrina by using the pokemon I won from her gym._  
  
“Now, that is the attitude that I’d like to see. Well, he has my vote, how about you two? Did he finally convince you as well?”  
  
Alfonzo nodded, “You seemed to be correct once more, my dear. It’s the folly of my age, I suppose, to always keep thinking I’m right.” He shrugged and laughed, “I’m now more than sure in this young man and I believe he will do splendidly tomorrow.”  
  
“I won’t apologize for my reasonable misgivings,” said Ada, crossing her arms in front of her chest, “but yes, I did change my mind when seeing him in person.”  
  
Faze felt elated, as he looked into the faces of the three people in front of him, the approving nod on Ada, the genial smile on Alfonzo and the bright smile on Whitney.  
  
“Wow, this means a lot to me. I won’t let you down.”  
  
“I’m sure you won’t.”  
  
“Are you going to be at the SYT as well?”  
  
Whitney nodded, “I will, I’m going to be one of the judges, alongside Sabrina, Erika and that weirdo Surge.”  
  
“And,” he hated that he was hesitating again,” you’re expecting for Sabrina to me upset at me being there?”  
  
Whitney laughed, surprising him. “Upset? Sabrina? No, I doubt she has the emotional range for that, to be quite honest.” At this, Ada did sigh and gave her a reproachful look which Whitney waved off. “But she doesn’t like people stepping on her toes. So, she might say something, to which I will say something, and we might then have a friendly match to make sure there are no hard feelings and to put on a show.”  
  
“Do you think you can win?”  
  
At that question, Whitney’s demeanor changed entirely. She was gazing intently at him, glaring almost, her eyes drilling into his. He felt himself shudder as his breath caught in his throat. Right now, for the first time since he met her, he felt that she was a gym leader. And not just any gym leader but the one to become one the fastest in the history of the League.   
  
Whitney’s ascend had been all anyone could talk about for two years now. The story of a young girl who had only started the whole pokemon battling thing at twenty years old, after flunking out of acting school, mostly on a whim. She took the license exam after only studying for a week and aced it. She took a few pokemon that everyone had mostly dismissed in fighting circles and turned them into amazing fighters in the span of a year. Her miltank, Judy, was almost unstoppable. She had defeated trainer after trainer and had even gotten to the point where she felt she could challenge gym leaders and had started winning badges.   
  
In just two-three years, she had become such a skilled and feared trainer, that she had been approached by Pokemon League and recruited as a gym leader for Goldenrod City, after the sudden death of the last gym leader. She accepted her new duty. So undeniable was her skill and prowess that she didn’t even have time to conquer the Indigo League.  
  
She was the only gym leader to raise to her position that fast. That hadn’t even been a year ago.  
  
Ever since then, the Goldenrod Gym had lived through something of a renaissance. Despite being the biggest city in Johto with a healthy economy and a large pool of people, the Goldenrod Gym of the past hadn’t really been all that impressive, with the focus of the city being on its trade, its media entertainment and its commercial hubs. Whitney hadn’t liked that. Two months after she took the helm, the gym had expanded, her popularity and force of personality had drawn it lots of not only trainers, but fans from various careers and all walks of life, all of them willing and happy to lend her a hand.  
  
In a short period of time, the gym had become a community center of the city, where the poplar, famous and important people met and mingled, where those who trained to become pokemon trainers were exposed to the elite of the city.  
  
That had led to two things; one to a lot more trainers flocking to the Goldenrod Gym than any point before and two, that Whitney was known to not have the strictest, most consistent standards for granting licenses and badges.  
  
Which wasn’t to say it was easy per se. Whitney was merely known to not really care all that much unless someone caught her interest and tended to not bother with people as long as they didn’t take up too much of her time. So be a decent trainer who didn’t cause any trouble was often enough to get the license. The opportunity for the badge, however, was only granted to those who already have a few badges and enough attention from the public and media to be worth the spectacle of a battle, and in those Whitney tended to give it her all, which was not something many could deal with.  
  
_Why can’t I stop saying stupid things?_  
  
“Now, now,” Alfonzo injected, drawing, Whitney’s attention away from Faze, her glare softening to a mild irritation, “as promising as this young man is, he is still a young man and you know how they can say things without thinking.”  
  
Whitney sighed, “Well, I guess so. But you better be careful with your mouth, kid. That’s a good way to make enemies out of friends.”  
  
_You’re only a few years older than me._ He didn’t say that, of course. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I’m sure it will be a battle to behold.”  
  
“You can bet on that, it will be good to finally…anyway,” she trailed off, shaking her head and giving him once more a bright smile, “those are just thoughts for an eventuality. For all we know Sabrina will just shrug it off. I’m sure this will work out. So, Faze, we’ll see you tomorrow then?”  
  
Faze could recognize a dismissal when he heard one, and he couldn’t let this chance slip through his fingers because he had messed this up with his idiocy. “Yes, thank you all so much. I want to show everyone what I can do and I will start with that tomorrow.”  
  
“Excellent,” she said and stood up. He hurriedly to follow suit and after shaking her hand, and the hands of her subordinates, he walked out of the room, head spinning with possibilities.  
  
_Tomorrow, I will get my second chance and prove that I’m going to become the champion one day._


	6. Chapter 6 - Lyn 3

The next morning, they had left as early as they could. They got up at six, grabbed quick showers, picked up their pokemon, got a small breakfast and left Pokemon Tech shortly after seven. Lyn was a bit annoyed that her hair was still wet, but it was already rather warm and it was going to get warmer from here. Neither one of them wanted to get lectured or worse, have to talk with that idiot that Cassie had destroyed again. A rematch might have been interesting since everyone would do better after knowing the pokemon of the opponent, especially with him having two more they didn’t know, but frankly speaking, the guy hadn’t been good enough to warrant a second fight.

By now, they’d been walking for over an hour, at a leisurely pace. Empy was strolling along next to her, as was the spearow of Cassie. He had shown the weakest performance of her pokemon yesterday and had got taken out the quickest but Cassie still seemed to like it enough, Lyn found. She was cooing at him and petting him, whenever he returned from a short flight. It was useful to have a flying pokemon like spearow around, if only for scouting purposes, but Lyn hoped she’d rotate that one out of her team as soon as possible. Her ekans, who as they had learned this morning had lost an eye, hadn’t been that impressive in combat either.

That said, her koffing and pikachu had been power-houses and they would be the backbone of her team. Fighting them now would be a folly, but once Lyn had her team, she’d look forward to a match against her older sister.

The road was well-traveled. Countless pokemon trainers over the years, alongside their pokemon, had stomped out a relatively smooth path through the edge of the forest. The path was popular, as it avoided the dangerous depths of the forest while still providing access to most of its pokemon on one side and on the other, the mountains of Saffron stretched. By no means overly tall, they were still a hurdle to inexperienced trainers.

So far, they hadn’t encountered that many pokemon. A few rattata here and there in the bushes and edges of the trees, a few spearows and pidgeys flying, but none of the more interesting ones.

There was making the best with the tools you’ve got and then there is being satisfied with shitty tools. Lyn was adamant to do the former, but she was also not going to make do with the first pokemon she saw.

Then again, they didn’t have all the time in the world. Rereading the terms and conditions for the Saffron Youth Tournament, it seemed that it would be three on three matches throughout, which meant she didn’t technically need a full team, but it would, of course, be better to have more options.

Whether it was better to make the three she had as strong as she could or if she should get one or two more and have more strategies available, Lyn didn’t know. She needed pokemon that would be worth it, though.

Neither had they run into any rangers for that matter. She’d been expecting to run in a patrol eventually

“How long do you want to walk today?” Cassie asked, after watching her spearow take off once more with a craw.

“Already tired?”

“Nah, but we also need to get some training in. Walking all day is a nice enough workout, but doesn’t do much for training purposes.”

Lyn conceded that point with a nod. “True. I’d thought we would go until we want to have lunch and then practice in the shade for an hour or two, until the sun isn’t quite as high and then we can walk until evening.”

“Works for me.” She then stopped, pointing at the underbrush. “Look at that.”

Lyn turned and she found a meowth peeking out from the bushes, the golden plate on its head gleaming in the morning sun. “Yeah, there are quite a few of them in and around Saffron City. Didn’t expect to see one this far from the city, though. Must be one of Pokemon Tech’s strays.”

_What an ugly pokemon._

“Why didn’t you ever catch one?”

“What for?” Lyn asked, raising an eye brow. “They aren’t exactly the best fighters. Their speed isn’t too shabby but otherwise, they don’t really offer anything that a lot of pokemon don’t as well, in addition to other stuff.”

“Sticking to the meta, I see. That’s boring.” She let out a sharp whistle, and pointed at the meowth, who was looking with curiosity at the two girls. Spearow, having heard the whistle and his sharp eyes seeing where and to what Cassie was pointing, dove down with a shriek, slamming into the meowth’s back, diving it out if the bush towards them. The meowth mewled in pain, turned around and started hissing at the spearow who was flapping his wings, hovering a few feet above the ground, crowing.

“Once more,” Cassie ordered and the spearow went for another dive, but this time the meowth managed to avoid the attack.

“You’re wasting your time,” Lyn was frowning. “Your pikachu can do everything the meowth can and throw lightning. Why bother with that one?”

“Relax, not going to capture it. If it had been stronger, maybe, but this one is too weak. Come back, Lancer, let it go.”

Her spearow cawed, shooting the meowth one last glare that let it run away in relief.

“Why bother even with a stronger one though?”

“Because I want one. Not sure if I’d wanna keep it in my team rotation but better to have an extra pokemon then to lack them altogether.”

“There is that,” Lyn agreed, “but we don’t have unlimited space for pokemon either and I would hate to waste a slot for a pokemon like that. Not to mention the time and effort to train all that many pokemon before the deadline.”

_And food._

“You do you, man. This is how I do things.” Her voice was sharper now, looking Lyn directly in the eyes.

Lyn raised both hands in a calming manner. “Fair enough. Will shut up about it.” After a few seconds of silence, she added, “Good job on the quick fight though. If you had wanted to capture it, you’d have gotten it.”

“Thanks, like to use Lancer for that. Wouldn’t want to start things off by poisoning them. They tend to take that badly.”

Lyn let out a dry laugh. “Probably. Next pokemon center is a while off as well. Might be a ranger outpost in the forest though.” She paused for a second. “Was mom ever stationed here?”

“Think so? Not sure, to be honest. She never mentioned it directly.”

“Any pieces of advice regarding rangers?”

“Yeah, listen to them when they tell you something and to not talk back.”

“Sounds about right.”

“What’s she doing right now?”

“Stationed in Ilex Forest. Usual ranger stuff.”

“That one is similar to Viridian Forest, right? Similar in size and varieties of pokemon and all. Mostly bug and poison types, but a lot of them.”

“Yeah, close enough. Difference now really is that Viridian also has a bit of a pidgey infestation, so, there is that, but I think they have more bug types. Anyway, mom’s shifts in Viridian took roughly a week or two, so, probably the same there.”

They walked for a few more minutes in silence, with only Empy’s squeaks and the distance craws of Lancer breaking it up, next to the sounds of the forest. It was a dry and sunny day and it was still early.

“So, dad is still writing then?” Cassie asked and Lyn shot her a surprised look. Until now, Cassie had been rather uninterested in their father and rightfully so, Lyn figured. Compared to their mother, their father was relatively inconsequential for their careers in pokebattling.

“Yeah,” she replied, “as far as I understand it, he has been working on that second book for a while.”

“Sequel or what?”

“You know, I’m not sure. Whenever we asked a question, he’d get weird and change topics.”

_As if he had a second book in him._

“Ah.” Cassie was chewing on her lower lip as she looked on the ground while they walked.

Lyn sighed. “Elyse has been trying her best and he does play with Amy from time to time.”

“Uh-huh.” She hesitated for a few seconds. “What’s Elyse doing, by the way?”

“She’s a math teacher in the local high school.”

“Neat.”

From then on, it was half an hour of silence and Lyn was starting to feel bad about this. She knew she wasn’t making things easy for Cassie but other than poke-stuff, there wasn’t much to talk about and she had the feeling that she was going to annoy Cassie soon enough with that.

“How is the streaming going?” Streaming was a safe topic, right? She had Cassie’s channel running to the side from time to time but she’d been barely paying attention for the most part.

She brightened at that. “Well, good enough to make a living from it. Even got a real sponsor, who’s shilling out for a storage slot and a bit of money. And I get their jackets and vests, as you can see. Well, the vest. Too hot for the jacket. “

“That’s pretty good, actually.” Lyn was impressed, the storage slots weren’t that expensive per se, or rather, it depended on the pokemon in question. It was frowned upon to keep pokemon in permanent stasis so storage facilities were more like huge farms and sanctuaries and depending on how much effort the maintenance and upkeep of a pokemon was, the higher the cost for a spot. A sponsored storage slot wouldn’t be much if one stuffed something like a butterfree in it but it was a whole different story if the pokemon in question was something bigger, like a tauros or gyrados. Something that could be a huge advantage later on but was too costly to keep around all the time and would definitely give her an edge if she played her cards right.

It might even be one of those spots where they actually trained the pokemon on the top of that, next to providing care.

“How many viewers do you have?”

“A few thousand on the streams, have a few mods employed and all, to keep the chat in place.”

Lyn’s eyes widened in surprise. Her older sister was that famous? “Wow, that’s quite a lot.”

“Yeah, it was going well. Hoping that most of them will continue to follow me on this poke-battling thing as well. Streaming those things should get good views.”

“Well, as long as you keep winning, that is.”

Cassie laughed.

“So, for now you’re just leaving text posts from time to time and a few vlogs?”

“Basically. And of course, gonna stream some matches if I can and maybe the training when we’re in a place with good enough wireless. A bit tricky to do in the middle of nowhere. Guess I could record a bit and edit it later.”

_And give any future opponent plenty of material to study about the strengths and weaknesses of our pokemon._

“Probably going to draft you as my cameraman from time to time.”

Lyn nodded, a small smile on her lips, “I figured you’d do that. Was the way last night any good? Anything to keep in mind?”

“Nah, it was great, thanks. Just common sense stuff, I guess. Not shaking it and whatnot. Can’t do much about lighting and sound, really, so gonna have to make due with what we have. Really just want to get as much material as possible and edit it to a cool video or two, those are always popular.”

Lyn had seen battle compilations and music videos online and while some were indeed excellent, most…weren’t.

“Yours any good?”

“Ha!” Cassie let out a dry laugh. “Well, I’d like to think so. Can show you one or two maybe tonight when we stop. Or rather, when we arrive at Caledon.”

“Sure.”

With that, conversation died once more and both sisters went back to walking silently, with only the occasional craw of Lancer when he had found an insect on a tree or in the bushes to eat or a mewl from Empy as it tried to keep pace with the group.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was later in the day, around noon, when they were on the lookout for one of the camping places on the path and had just reached one. Due to the very frequent use of these paths, over the decades, a few good camping spots had established themselves. Spots for campfires, with a small stream nearby, places that had a low chance of aggressive pokemon attacking, simply due to the fact that human stench and living habits had made these small flecks of land sanctuaries for trainers.

No need to occupy a place of the forest that was relatively untouched if there were more than enough that were.

Right now, they had reached a spot of the path that was more open, as the tree line had reclined on the right and the mountains on the left were looming high.

Eating didn’t take long. In twenty minutes, they were all well fed, pokemon and humans alike.

“So, how do you want to do this?” Cassie asked her. Lyn was looking over the assorted pokemon. Nidoran, magnemite, abra, koffing, ekans, spearow and pikachu.

_Rather heavy on poison types._

“How did you train yours? I figured we would for the start just do what we always did and then after a few days of observing each other’s pokemon and training styles do some combination thing,”

Cassie scratched the back of her head for a second, mulling that over. “Well, sure. My team is so far mostly about poison and speed. Even Diva, despite being rather slow but being able to hover, and make most pokemon hesitate getting up close does the trick most of the time. Of course, fast and dangerous long-range attacks are kinda her weakness, same with things that are immune to poison and can come in close and hard. Either way, being able to dodge is rather important. Pretty much for all my pokemon, really, so usually have them work on speed, evasion and accuracy. The faster and the better they can aim while running and dodging, the better they’ll do against most enemies. That goes for all of four of them. In terms of physical strength, only Medusa has something potentially to offer there. For the others, it’s not like that will ever improve all that much. Well, we’ll have to see first how having only one eye is going to work out for her, so, gonna focus on that while the others are doing their usual.” She gave the ekans a warm smile, who hissed back with some confidence.

The ekans hadn’t impressed Lyn but she liked that it took such a horrible injury with that much spirit and she could respect its will to fight.

“And you?” she asked Lyn.

Lyn had nodded throughout her explanation. It was a solid strategy for the beginning. Seemed best for the pokemon at hand, only thing to do was really round up her team with pokemon who could take some damage and deal it back in close combat.

_Then again, I’m facing a similar problem. More so, in fact. Empy had to do the same job as Cassie’s koffing did only she was objectively worse at it, seeing she, at least so far, didn’t have long range attacks and wasn’t physically the strongest. Really, getting her to evolve was a priority, for anything to work._

“Well, things aren’t much different there. Jolt has to train the same thing, to be on the move constantly and be able to aim and hit things whilst dodging, whereas I have Empy do a lot of dashes and weaves so she can get close to enemies. Carrie is meditating only, at least until she evolves. Abras aren’t doing much before that.”

Cassie nodded and was giving her a concerned nod. “So, you need to get two of your pokemon to evolve ASAP and one or two more to round things up. Well, seems we’re overall in a rather similar position.”

“Guess we’ll see how it all works out. Let’s start.”

For the next two hours, they drilled their pokemon. Lyn had Empy and Jolt practice together. They would switch between Empy trying to dash towards Jolt whilst dodging its lighting strikes, albeit those with barely any strength in them whereas later on, Jolt would try to hit Empy who was doing her best to keep the distance to Jolt.   
  
Checking over to glance at what Cassie was doing would show Lyn that her sister had apparently found her ekans state to be satisfactory to battle at least and had her and her koffing do a mock fight. Meanwhile, her spearow and her pikachu were doing a similar thing as her own pokemon, as the spearow tried to dive pikachu and dodge the more half-assed lightning attacks.

This was fine for now. She checked the time and decided that they would need to continue.

xxxx

It was later in the day that they encountered another pokemon, this time a growlithe. They had found it sleeping in the shade of a particularly large stone, almost a boulder. Empy was staring at it, whilst Lancer had landed on a tree not more than three meters away. The fire pokemon had orange fur with black stripes over its body and the fur on its stomach, muzzle and tail had the color of light cream. It wasn’t a particularly big specimen though, leading Lyn to think that it was probably rather young.

Most importantly, it was alone, without a protective parent or trainer around. Lyn immediately took out her pokedex and scanned it, to see if it simply hadn’t escaped its trainer. The pokedex told her that it hadn’t and that it was in fact a she, not older than a few months.

“Dibs!” called Cassie, a tinge of glee in her voice. Lyn raised an eyebrow but didn’t mind. She wouldn’t have minded one. After all, a well-trained arcanine was a force to behold, not to mention immensely useful in a lot of ways. But she didn’t have her heart set on one like her older sister seemed to have and she wasn’t going to fight her on this, especially since she was well aware that the she hadn’t made things particularly easy for her already.

However, she felt like she should mention one important thing that might have escaped Cassie in her enthusiasm.

“Be my guest,” she said, and pocketed her pokedex again, “but are you sure? They have an extremely good sense of smell and your starter is a koffing and the way I understood it you also want a grimer later on. That’s at least two pokemon who are rather incompatible with her.”

The smile vanished from her face. “Fuck, you’re right.” She stopped to think for a moment. “That said, it’s not unexpected. Pewter gym doesn’t hand out trainer licenses to anyone like Saffron does and since I got lovely Diva, I got training in how to handle that. You know the poison course on treatment and stuff. You had to go to that as well for you nidoran, yeah? It won’t be easy but I’m fairly certain I can train her through this. Already did so with Rush, even if his sense of smell might not be as good as that of growlithe. Still, same principle applies. Don’t worry, I have enough antidotes and know how to deal with this, I just forgot for a second because look at her! She’s so cute and her fur is so pretty.”

She released Rush, the vicious pikachu looked at the growlithe with some disdain but nodded at the order to be as gentle as possible here. Lyn saw the value in the choice. Two of her pokemon would have poisoned the thing and being so young, the spearow might have injured it more than necessary. The pikachu, as mean-spirited as it was, could do better if he controlled himself, something Cassie seemed to have more confidence in than Lyn thought was sensible.

Cassie could have just thrown a pokeball on the little creature but being caught in her sleep would not make the growlithe more amendable to her new trainer, if anything it would make it worse. Beaten and captured in combat was better than be caught like that, though nothing was better than to win the friendship and trust before capturing one.

That was easier said than done and required food, patience, luck and time.

_None of which we have_.

In that sense, she was grateful at her sister that she chose to do it like this. She could have insisted on staying here for a few hours and capturing growlithe the slow but more rewarding way and Lyn felt like she would have given her that time, even if begrudgingly.

Lyn was rather sure Rush rolled his eyes but trotted to the sleeping pokemon and rudely poked his paw into her side, waking the growlithe. Her eyes snapped open and she groggily tried to get on her feet, looking around confused until her eyes took in the group of humans and pokemon in front of her.

She bared her teeth and started to growl, which made Cassie coo.

“Look how adorably fierce she is!”

Luckily, the growlithe didn’t try to escape and was staring down Rush who was looking back with utter boredom and disdain. She was barking and growling, none of which really fazed the electric rat.

“A very gentle tackle, Rush. Not too much!”

Rush obeyed and jot forward slamming into her side, knocking her back a few feet. The fire pokemon howled in pain and before she could find her footing, Rush was already on her again, this time slamming his tail into her head. The yelp growlithe let out was enough to make Cassie wince and even Lyn felt a bit bad.

Growlithe, now seeing that a win against Rush was not that likely, tried to make a run for it, but Rush was too fast and darted around her, cutting off the way. It was then and there, when the realization set that it was thoroughly beaten, that Cassie reacted. She pulled out an empty pokeball, enlarged it and gently lobbed it at the growlithe. The ball hit her and her small body turned into red poke-energy and was sucked into the now open ball and landed gently on the lush grass. It twitched a few times, the dot in the middle still emitting red light before it dimmed out and the pokeball stood still, signaling the capture.

Cassie squealed in happiness and immediately took out her pokedex and scanned the pokeball, registering the growlithe as hers within the regional system. “Great work, sweetie, you did so good, here, have a treat.” Rush stalked towards her with a gait in his steps and accepted the berries with such dignity and haughty poise that Lyn felt almost bad for the growlithe.

She petted the pikachu with great enthusiasm after she picked up the pokeball and the cuddled it to her chest. “Oh, don’t worry you. Mommy will take good care of you and you’ll grow big and strong and happy and burn all my enemies to ashes!”

_And suddenly her pikachu makes a lot more sense._

Lyn leaned her head back and closed her eyes. _Well, this should be interesting._

xxxx

The rest of the day was spent with marching. They had decided that they would walk until dark and make camp when they found a good spot. It would be then, that Cassie would release her growlithe for the first time and make the first steps in taming her. It was a process that required a bit of time and that was only possible once they settled down for the day.

Meanwhile, Cassie had been loudly pondering the names she was considering but hadn’t found one she’d be happy with. Naming a pokemon was important and required some thinking. Long names were not sensible for pokebattlers and one would want names that could be taken somewhat seriously. Made-up names like Skorlash or overcompensating names like Destroyer or Death Wings were all equally bad.

“How about Moltres?”

“No.”

“Ice? If said, my next pokemon is Ice, that could make them try to counter an ice or water pokemon but instead it’s a fire dog the size of a small car.”

Lyn considered that for a moment, glancing up for a second to see the sun slowly setting. “Would only work once, if at that. People at higher levels tend to research opponents and you’d get a reputation as someone who uses cheap tricks.”

Not that Lyn minded cheap tricks in and off themselves, but this type was just not worth considering.

“Hmm, how about Fyrestorm? With an y instead of an i?” She was shooting Lyn a cheeky grin which made Lyn chuckle and shake her head.

“Blaze 2?”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Lady Fyre? Also with an y, by the w-“

“No!”

xxxxx

Cassie had given up on finding a name shortly afterwards, deciding that it might be better to get to know the growlithe first, which was the right call to make.

By now, they had also found a good camping spot for the night. Next to a small stream, was a clearing with a prepared fire pit, the wood already lined up and ready to go. All they had to do was to pitch their tents, start the fire and eat. Of course, they would be expected to leave this spot as they found it, to make sure that the next person who came here would have the same comfort as them.

She had read on forums how some people didn’t do it and since trainers tended to be rather active on such sites, more often than not, people were able to work out who had been the selfish asshole.

There was no fine or anything, but being on the shit-list of a ton of people for being a jerk did make life harder.

Besides, it was the decent thing to do.

In the meantime, Cassie had released all her pokemon but the growlithe and had started feeding them. Empy and Carrie were already eating but Lyn was still busy setting up the charging station, with Jolt hovering next to her somewhat impatiently.

The sun, by now, had gone, darkness slowly setting in. The fire was cackling, and Lyn had to admit, it wasn’t as unpleasant as she’d expected it to be. Sure, there were annoying bugs and walking all day was rather tiring but there was a charm to it.

“It’s ready, Jolt,” she said after activating the device and stepping back. Jolt chirped in satisfaction and immediately touched it with the two screws sticking out of its lower head. It barely made a sound but there were some blue flashes of light as electricity arced from the device to the magnemite, making it hum in delight.

Leaving her strongest pokemon to its meal, she turned her attention to the now boiling water in the small pot over the fire. She took it off the fire and poured it into two cups with tea bags in them. Taking both, she stood up, walked to Cassie and handed her one, which her sister accepted with a warm smile.

“Thanks, Lyn.”

Lyn nodded, holding the cup in both hands. It wasn’t exactly cold now but it got fresher and soon enough, they’d need to take their blankets out. She’d never been too good at dealing with the cold.

“Are you going to tame your growlithe now?”

Cassie nodded. She put down the cup on the ground, stood up, stretched and then walked a few steps forward. She let out a sharp whistle, getting the attention of her pokemon.

“Okay guys, here’s the deal. With a bit of luck, we’ll have a new friend joining us, so make her feel welcome, okay? At the same time, Rush, Lancer, you’re up to intervene if she does something unwise. But whatever, don’t be too harsh. She’s still young and I don’t want her harmed, is that clear? That’s why you two should stand back, okay? Medusa, you shouldn’t stress yourself right now and Diva, I would rather not poison her just yet, so if you’re finished eating, would recall you for the moment, girl.”

Rush seemed miffed and just let out a grunt and plumbed down on the ground, not moving from next of the fire, but he was still looking at Cassie. Lancer had positioned himself on a branch on one of the trees surrounding them and crowed in agreement. Medusa let out an unimpressed hiss and returned to her coiled position next to Rush, basking in the heat of the fire whereas the koffing, already at a distance from the rest of the group, far away from the open flame and the others in order to not make anyone sick, just grumbled in agreement. She apparently had already finished eating.

“Yeah, I know, it sucks but don’t let it put you down. I promise, the second we get to Celadon, you’re getting a special treat.”

The koffing cheered up at that, the bobbing up and down, the ominous cross and bones on its weird body flashing in the light of the fire.

_What a creepy pokemon_.

“Thanks a lot, sweetie.” And with that, Cassie returned her to her pokeball and attached it back to her belt.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what does she eat?”

“A different kind of processed food. Some kinda mix between garbage and poison, really. It doesn’t so much as eat it as it does consume the gases it emits. Few other living beings can stand that and they don’t really take to normal, generic poke-food. The upside is, that stuff isn’t that expensive, just a bit more than the usual stuff. Not as terrible of a smell as you’d expect as well. Still, a bit tricky to handle though. Need gloves and the like.”

She turned to Lyn and grinned. “She’s a bit of a high maintenance girl, but you saw that she’s worth it.”

“That’s one way of putting it but yeah, gotta admit, she’s rather tough. How long until she evolves?”

Cassie thought for a bit. “Don’t think it’s something that’ll happen that soon but shouldn’t be too far off, really. Hopefully before the SYT.” She then grabbed the other pokeball from her belt. “But now to this. The poor thing is probably starving at this point.” With that, she pressed the button in the middle, the red top half of the poke ball opened and red poke-power was released, only to form a growlithe that was staring resentfully at Cassie.

“Hey, gorgeous, how’re you?” Cassie asked, her voice sweet and bright, and she crouched down, getting closer to the fire pokemon. She then took out a small pouch filled with quality food, poured a bit of it on her palm and extended it to her new pokemon. “You’re hungry, aren’t you? Do you want to eat? Here, it’s great.”

She let the hand hover in front of the pokemon, who was staring at it and her while standing on all four legs, glaring and showing her teeth.

Rush, meanwhile, had stood up and was glaring at the growlithe. He trotted slowly next to Cassie and let electricity spark on his cheeks for a heartbeat. It wasn’t much but it was enough to make the growlithe cringe in fear and step back.

“Easy buddy,” Cassie chided, “We’re all friends here.” She then met the growlithe’s eyes. “I know this sucks, but you were lost and I don’t think we can find your family. How about sticking with us for a while. We’re going to travel for a month or so and if by the time you say you don’t wanna stay, we can try to find your family and I’ll let you go. But how about giving this a try? We’re a cool bunch, you’ll be in my vids and we’ll battle our way to the top, how does that sound?”

The growlithe’s expression didn’t change, it was still an angry growl but it stood a bit more relaxed. Cassie’s soothing tone had accomplished at least that much.

“Come here, girl, eat at least. Give your answer later. Not going to withhold food or anything.”

The fire pokemon took a few tentative steps forward, sniffed the food in the now slightly shaking palm and started eating. Rush let out a satisfied squeak before walking off back to the fire.

Cassie exhaled, the tenseness leaving her shoulders and she reached out with her other hand, running her hand through her fur rather slowly and while the growlithe momentarily stopped eating, she continued after a few seconds.

“Thanks, cutie. I’m sure we’ll be best of friends soon enough.”

Leaving the two alone, Lyn walked to the fire, took a sip from the cup in her hands and enjoyed the black tea. Empy came to her side, and put her head on her lap. Lyn carefully touched her face, careful to not come into contact with any of her poisonous spikes on Empy’s back.

Lyn enjoyed the warmth, the tea and Empy’s presence for a few minutes before Cassie sat down next to her.

“That went well,” she said, her pokecom in her hands, her tea forgotten. “There is still work to be done and I don’t think growlithe will be battle-ready any time soon but I’m hopeful.”

“Good job. With a bit of luck, you might be able to use her in the SYT.”

“That would be nice, a fire pokemon like that is always good to have. But first, let me update my followers.”

And just as she was about to type, a murkrow swooped down and snatched the poke-com out of her hands.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7 - Lyn 4

Cassie cursed, jumped up, and started to dash after the murkow. “LANCER, RUSH, FOLLOW THAT BIRD!”  
  
The two pokemon rose from their dozing, took a few seconds to orient themselves before they joined the pursuit of their trainer. Meanwhile, Lyn had let the cup fall on the ground.  
  
_What a dive._  
  
Shaking that thought, she hurried up as well. Thinking for a second what to do now, she immediately returned Jolt into its pokeball, rushed to her backpack and pulled out a flashlight.  
  
“Empy, Carrie. Stay here with Medusa and protect the camp.” With that said, she sprinted after her sister and her pokemon. She was sure Empy had heard at least, since it was rather likely that Carrie was already asleep.  
  
Murkrows were known to lure people into places they couldn’t navigate in or get hurt in order to shake them off but right now, she couldn’t afford to slow down and leave her sister alone. She just had to hope that trying to lose them in a dark forest was all it had planned and wasn’t leading them into something really dangerous.  
  
By now, things had gotten rather dark, the cone of light from her flashlight firmly pointed to the ground to prevent her from stumbling over root or stone. Shadows and dark shapes surrounded her as the cool night her was brushing through her as she rushed through the woods.  
  
“CASSIE!” she yelled, hoping her sister would hear her. Cassie had most of her pokemon with her and could find the camp with them if she got lost. Lyn on the other hand had only Jolt, who wasn’t exactly a tracker, so she made sure to mark a tree with her pocket knife every ten meters or so. Her running had slowed to a light jog.  
  
_Think, think. How am I supposed to orient myself in a forest after dark? Don’t, I think, was the advice given by Florence unless you really have to. In which case, go slow and steady. Unless you can’t, in which case you’re probably fucked and need to depend on luck._  
  
As far as advice went, that wasn’t particularly helpful for the situation at hand.  
  
Of course, stumbling wasn’t the only dangerous thing that could happen. Far worse would be to run into a pokemon that wished you harm. One could deal with a rattata or two unless one was particularly unfortunate, but you could just as well step on an oddish or disturb a beedrill and that could be fatal. It’s not like that wasn’t something a murkrow wouldn’t do. They were infamous for it and one of the reasons most people really didn’t like them.  
  
_I could call Jolt right now, might be safer, but it isn’t that fast._  
  
She called for her sister again and listened for a few seconds before she heard a voice. She changed directions to the left and sped up a bit, trying to reach it. One more time she yelled for her and this time, she got a response she could understand and clearly make out as Cassie  
  
_Thank the gods. Don’t think neither mother nor Amy would have forgiven me if I had let Cassie die on our first night in the wilds._  
  
After a minute, she finally reached her sister, who was standing next to a fallen tree, breathing hard, her arms crossed, with Rush right next to her.  
  
“That was pretty reckless to run off like that.”  
  
“That little shit has my pokecom. Do you know how expensive that was?”  
  
“I can guess,” Lyn replied, feeling her heart beat faster from the running. Walking for so long and now the sprint hadn’t done her legs any favors. “Still, breaking your leg wouldn’t have improved things. Or if you had run into something dangerous.”  
  
Cassie didn’t reply, focused on something.  
  
“Did you lose it?”  
  
“No, don’t think so. Think it should be up that tree somewhere. Lancer was able to follow it.”  
  
“Nice. Dibs by the way.”  
  
Cassie whirled around, glaring at Lyn. “What?”  
  
“Dibs. I’m calling dibs on the murkrow.”  
  
“You want this thief?”  
  
“Showed it was ambitious, cunning, precise and greedy. A pretty good combination of traits for a combat pokemon, I’d say.”  
  
_Besides, flying dark type is a pretty good one and I need some utility as soon as possible._  
  
Cassie held the stare for a few seconds before she sighed and turned away. “Fine, you can take point. I don’t really care as long as I get my pokecom back safe and sound.”  
  
“Thank you.” Lyn took out Jolt’s pokeball.  
  
“Can you even see it?”  
  
“I don’t need to, Jolt will detect it.”  
  
Jolt joined them, hovering between them, letting out a small mechanical sigh. Lyn took out her pokedex and pointed at the trees, roughly at the spot Cassie had just a minute ago.  
  
Waiting for the pokedex to do its job, she glanced at her sister. “Where is Lancer?”  
  
“Snacking on bugs on one of these trees while keeping an eye on it. Up there, a bit to the left.”  
  
Before Lyn could answer, the pokedex let out the sound that it had finished scanning the murkrow.  
  
_Huh, stronger than I expected, but not too much, still within our means of fighting it._  
  
“Okay, Jolt will engage and try to move her away from her nest. Lancer can either then grab your pokecom or sit on top of it to at least prevent the murkrow from grabbing it again. Then Jolt will beat her down, and I’ll catch her.”  
  
“Sounds like a plan.”  
  
“Jolt, go, try to spook her away from her nest, but no attacks that can harm the pokecom.”  
  
Jolt hummed in understanding and levitated upwards slowly rotating to let its eye wander over all the branches in order to spot the nest. After a few seconds, Jolt saw the nest and sped up towards it, letting out a high-pitched sound. It wasn’t quite a supersonic attack, it wouldn’t do any damage or affect the murkrow in any way, but it did surprise and scare her enough that she took off from her nest. She crowed, fluttered to a branch a few meters away, and shot Jolt a heated glare. Electricity cackled from Jolt’s screws and arced towards the murkrow too fast for it to dodge and made it screech in pain. She tried to fly away, but being hit with the electric attack made her muscles spasm and even though she tried to flap her wings, she was losing height and was half gliding half falling faster to the ground.  
  
That was the reason why electric attacks were so effective against flying type pokemon. Electricity tended to mess with the nervous system and muscles, making them spasm and mess up their coordination for a while. It made it harder to walk and move for a bit. Some pokemon could endure it better than others, of course. For many pokemon, that made fighting after being hit difficult. Lesser speed, reduced coordination and spasms tended to affect their performance. For flying types, however this meant losing their ability to fly and plummet to the ground or at the very least made flying a lot harder and cost them their agility.  
  
What was annoying for pokemon on the ground was crippling and devastating for pokemon in the air.  
  
Well, unless you had Zapdos, of course.  
  
_I would kill for one._  
  
A satisfied look found its way onto Lyn’s face as she saw murkrow coming nearer to her and she grabbed and enlarged an empty poke ball to be ready when it was both, in range and sufficiently weakened. Flying types were harder to catch than most types, since they could simply fly away if a fight didn’t go the way they liked or if they simply weren’t in the mood to fight and few people had the aim to hit a flying bird twenty meters in the air with a poke ball.  
  
Lyn knew for a fact that she wasn’t that type of crack-shot and she was rather certain that it would be an extraordinary feat for even athletes.  
  
Murkrow, meanwhile, was trying to fight back but she had been caught completely off guard. No doubt, she had never encountered a magnemite before and just hadn’t known what to expect.  
  
_But that’s just lack of experience, not capability. That’s something I can still work with._  
  
“Bring her down, Jolt,” she ordered her magnemite and it hummed in acceptance, and burst forward to slam its body in murkrow, making her lose whatever flight it had.  
  
Thankfully, she was only a few meters above the ground, so the fall wasn’t that bad and had been unlikely to damage anything.  
  
It was, however, sufficient for her purposes and she lobbed the pokeball on the now crashed pokemon. It hit the murkrow, it dissolved in red light and disappeared into the pokeball. After twitching three times, it came to a standstill, signaling that Lyn was now one pokemon richer than she had been a few minutes ago.  
  
Satisfaction and pride filled her, as she felt that she now had made a tangible first step on her journey, had added to her team and was on the road to prove herself to Sabrina.  
  
“Well done,” said Cassie, walking to the tree that had murkrow’s nest on one of its branches.  
  
“But now I have to climb this thing, so be a dear and give your big sister a boost.”  
  
There was definitely room for improvement though.  
  
xxxxx  
  
It took Cassie roughly ten minutes to climb up the tree, reclaim her pokecom and climb back down. She also showed Lyn something else she found in the nest.  
  
“This is a premier ball, isn’t it?” Cassie asked when she examined the shiny, white ball with the orange-brownish line in the middle.  
  
“Yeah, I think so. Never saw a real one before, only as a picture a few times but this should be one, I think.”  
  
Cassie nodded, as she pressed the button to enlarge it. She then took out her pokedex, and pointed the scanner on it.  
  
“It’s registered to a trainer named Aaron Vittel.”  
  
“Don’t know the guy. What’s in it?”  
  
“A staraptor.” At Lyn’s questioning look, she elaborated. “A normal flying type from Sinnoh.”  
  
“Ooh, that one.” She remembered that it was grayish-brown with a red tipped black crest over its head and a black spot on the tip of its orange beak. “Never wanted one.”  
  
“Same,” Cassie agreed. “Think we should release it to check on it? Give it some food?”  
  
Lyn hesitated. “I don’t know, what if it was injured and being in the ball is what is keeping it alive? We don’t know how long it was in there, without food or anything. We don’t have the supplies or training to do something about that.”  
  
“Good point,” she bit her pink lower lip in thought, “Well, how long do you think it’ll take for us to reach Celadon City?”  
  
“A day or two? If all goes well, I mean.”  
  
“I guess we’ll wait then. Too bad there is no number or anything to contact them with.”  
  
“Whatever we do, we should think about it back at our campsite. We shouldn’t leave it alone for too long and it is already dark enough.”  
  
“Yeah,” Cassie said, then looked around, as if now realizing the situation she was in. “I really hope you know the way back because I don’t.”  
  
“Rush can help us find back and I did mark trees every few meters, so hopefully that will be enough to find the way back. We didn’t get that far away but please, the next time, don’t do this. We were really lucky we didn’t walk into a poison type or a pokemon nest or anything. Or even broke something by tripping over a root.”  
  
Cassie looked chastised as she looked on the ground. “You’re right, that was stupid of me. I’m sorry, Lyn. It’s just that, it’s really important to me. It took me quite a while to save for the pokecom and I really need it for my streaming and online career. Without it, I would be fucked. There is no way I can afford another one and insurance takes ages to process this kinda stuff. If I am offline for a month or so, I’ll be done.”  
  
Lyn was close to saying that it would be bad for her career if she got seriously injured as well but she swallowed the words, knowing that there was no point in speaking them out loud.  
  
Cassie knew she had screwed up, and harping on it wouldn’t do anything.  
  
_This better not become a habit._  
  
“I understand,” she said after a few seconds.  
  
“And I am glad your pokecom is okay. Let’s just go back.”  
  
Rush, meanwhile, was looking as if none of this was bothering him.  
  
Cassie looked like she wanted to say something, but let out a sigh, and turned to her small vicious rat. “Come on, sweetie, can you show us the way back to camp?”  
  
Rush squeaked as if it was an insult to his person to even consider the possibility that he couldn’t do something and started trotting along.  
  
We walked in silence, my flashlight aimed at the ground, occasionally aiming the cone of light around to see if we spotted any wild pokemon. Oddish were night active pokemon, for example and while they weren’t really common around these parts, one couldn’t discount pokemon who found themselves here one way or another, whether it be migration or just being released by their trainers.  
  
Rush was walking ahead, letting his nose and ears guide them, while Lyn tried to look out for the marked trees and was satisfied to see that they were on the right path as she was seeing them.  
  
“So, a murkrow,” Cassie said after a minute of silence. “You said you wanted one earlier, so you happy about this?”  
  
Lyn grimaced and wobbled with her hand, “Well, it’s more like, for this phase we are at, and for the SYT, I wouldn’t mind having one. In the short term, a murkrow is a pretty good pick for my team and will do good for a while. And the route we are planning to go, it’s one of the better pokemon to catch. However, I don’t really see myself keeping her for eventual gym badges.”  
  
“Why’s that? Flying dark type is nothing to sneeze at.”  
  
Lyn took care not to step on the root right in front of her. “Sure, the type is good, the problem is that in the upper echelons of pokebattling, you rarely see murkrows and hunchkrows. There is only one and that is Karen’s and hers is a bit of a freak. She has a theme going on, anyways.”  
  
“So, what’s the reason?”  
  
“It’s that murkrows lack firepower and durability later on, compared to other pokemon, and while the hunchkrow evolution improves its parameters generally, it does drastically reduce its speed. Basically, it becomes a bit better in areas it wasn’t that great to begin with and still isn’t and loses the one aspect that made it worthwhile. Which is fine in the lower tiers, such as the SYT, but can be a problem later on. I wouldn’t want to field a big and slow target against electric types with good aim.”  
  
Cassie frowned, “It’s also a problem to blindly follow what everyone else is doing. Sure, sometimes there is a good reason for that, but sometimes, you’ve got to do your own thing. I told you, just going for the general meta can be boring and what’s the point of doing your thing if you are going to do the same as everyone else? Honestly, there have been so many trainers running basically identical hybrid teams with barely any variation and it's become boring to watch.”  
  
“Is that why you want pokemon like muk?”  
  
“Nah, they’re cute. Just saying, go with pokemon you like, not only pokemon you see that are already successful. I mean, use those too if you want, of course, if you can but be open for other possibilities.”  
  
“It doesn't change the fact that some pokémon are simply better suited for fighting than others and you aren't doing anyone a favor by ignoring that.” Lyn let the cone of light wander over the ground and shine briefly on their pokémon.  
  
Cassie shrugged and put her hands in her pockets. “It's never as absolute as that, though. With the right training and strategy, everything is possible. Besides, no one is going to be impressed by the girl who won with a dragonite and relaxo.”  
  
It was then that Lyn understood. “But they will be by the girl who goes far with a ragtag team of all kinds of pokémon.”  
  
Cassie snorted in a way that made Rush look up. “I'm not that cynical and calculating. It's more the fact that I want to be myself and have my pokémon reflect that. I don't want anyone to tell my what to do and what pokémon to choose for that. I couldn't imagine anything more boring than becoming a champion by following some kind of recipe.”  
  
“What's wrong with a plan?”  
  
“Nothing, as long it is your plan. I mean, I also have ideas for which pokémon I want. A muk is one of them,” Cassie said, and Lyn saw how she had a concerned expression on her face. “I hadn't planned for a growlithe, since it’s unlikely to stumble upon one but it was a good piece of luck that we did.” She paused for a second. “Is there a specific pokémon you want?”  
  
“Did you wonder why I planned for this exact route?”  
  
“I figured it was so that we wouldn't be gone for too long for our first trip in case I turned out to be too annoying to endure 24/7.”  
  
_Where did that come from?_  
  
Lyn didn't know how serious her sister was at that moment, so she ignored that for the moment. “I want a staryu. And on this route we will have two opportunities to catch one.”  
  
Cassie’s eyes widened, and a faint smile curved on her lips. “You know, I can see that. What's so special about that pokémon for you?”  
  
_How far is this camp?_  
  
Lyn shrugged. “I wanted one ever since I saw Omar, one of Sabrina's core teammates, demolish some elite trainer with his starmie. It was… something amazing. The way it floats and moves. Its eerie but at the same time awe-inspiring. It’s an ethereal pokemon that is strong and fascinating, but also calming, does that make sense?”  
  
Cassie by now had a wide grin. “And what about the fact that very few high-level trainers have one in their main teams? On the fly, I would just say Misty has one, well and that lackey of Sabrina you just mentioned.”  
  
Lyn shot her sister a dirty look. “I never said I would follow any particular plan but my own. It's just that there are pokémon I want for combat and some that I wouldn't mind owning regardless of that and since my main goal is to reach the top, I will focus on those that are also efficient in battle. A staryu happens to fill both criteria.”  
  
“There is that, I suppose. I’m just happy that you’re going for your own thing.” She glanced quickly on her pokecom, before continuing. “So, that’s why you said you wanted to go to route 19 and the islands there. I did figure you wanted one of the water pokemon there but didn’t think it was one in particular.”  
  
Lyn tucked one strand of her hair back with her free hand. “There are several good pokemon in those parts and I realize that with the time limit we have right now, we might not get a staryu. I doubt we will have more than a few days to stay there whereas initially I hadn’t really considered the SYT at all. Is there anything you would want?”  
  
“Don’t really have a preference. Shellders are adorable and I wouldn’t mind one. Same with a chinchou or krabby. Hard to go wrong there.”  
  
“Shellder was my second choice,” Lyn said, walking slowly. The darkness had now set in fully. “Which is not to say that I would insist on the first one.”  
  
“Nah, I get it, I haven’t set my heart onto anything, really. We’ll see, I guess.”  
  
Lyn didn’t reply verbally and just nodded, so they went the rest of the way in silence. It took around ten minutes of slow walking, with their electric pokemon out as guards for them to make it back to their campsite, only for them to hear human voices. Immediately, they crouched down and stopped.  
  
“What the hell, what do we do?”  
  
Lyn’s mind was racing, who were they? Just a few fellow trainers looking for a place to camp? Rangers on a patrol? Unsavory characters, like thieves? Worse?  
  
“I don’t know,” she whispered back. “Tempted to go in, attack first and sort things out afterwards.”  
  
“We can’t do that,” Cassie put a hand on Rush’s back who was tense, ready to jump and blast whoever was there with lightning. “What if it’s someone we could get in trouble for?”  
  
The decision, however, was taken from their hands as a voice interrupted their discussion.  
  
“Hey, we can hear you out there, don’t worry, we’re Rangers.” It was the voice of an older man.  
  
Cassie and Lyn exchanged glances. “You guys have any way to prove that before we do anything?” Cassie yelled back.  
  
He didn’t reply but instead they heard a whooshing sound that made them flinch when something landed near them. The two sisters whirled around only to see the copper coin of a Ranger lying there. Sharing an uneasy glance, Cassy picked it up and examined it. Seeing that she had lived with their Poke-Ranger mother, she was far more suited to check for its authenticity.  
  
_The only thing dad taught me was to find a good wife, while Cassie got the ranger and pokemon stuff._  
  
“It looks real,” she murmured to Lyn and stood up. Seeing her sister walk forwards now, calling her pikachu to her. It swiftly climbed on her shoulder, but it was still tense, coiled and ready to leap off his position to attack the strangers. “Feels and looks exactly like a real one, like mom’s.”  
  
Lyn breathed out in relief and followed suit and in a few seconds, they were back in their campsite.  
  
“This is your camp, right?” asked the older of the two, a man with a big, red beard with broad shoulders clad in the typical garb of the rangers. Black, sturdy trousers and shirt with orange shoes and an orange vest, with a rope tied to his belt. His partner, a dark-skinned man who seemed to be either in his late twenties or early thirties, was cleanshaven, had short, black hair which was nearly hidden by his orange cap. He was crouched down by the fire, apparently looking over Cassie’s ekans.  
  
Next to Empy was a grotle, two bushes sticking out of its yellow shell as it was munching on some grass and a tangela, which was resting with its eyes closed on its shell, between those bushes.  
  
“Yes, is something wrong?” Lyn asked, crossing her arms, while Jolt hovered right to her side.  
  
“You mean besides you not being here in the middle of the night and leaving a fire unattended?” he asked, his voice rough and raised his eyebrows.  
  
“Yeah, besides that,” joked Cassie, handing the badge back to the red bearded man who let out a snort as he attached it back on his vest.  
  
“At least, you have a sense of humor.” His expression became sterner. “I’m Senior-Ranger Jackson, this is Ranger Omar. Do I have to say anything about how stupid this was?”  
  
“Nah, my sister already lectured me not ten minutes ago.”  
  
“Good, I hate lecturing.” He sighed, running a hand through his short hair. “What was it that made you two run out in the middle of the night, and leaving your camp and pokemon like this?”  
  
“And what happened to your ekans?” asked the other one.  
  
“Was injured in a fight at poke tech yesterday.” She then turned to the older man. “Murkrow stole my pokecom and I chased it. Lyn followed me to make sure I was okay, so my mistake and I know I fucked up.”  
  
“You ran after a murkrow in the dark?” he asked incredulously, “are you daft? Murkrows can be vicious fuckers.”  
  
“I know, I know, but it turned out alright. Heck, my sister caught her.”  
  
The other ranger’s mouth opened in shock before he let out a short bark of laughter. “You actually caught Gundel?”  
  
“She has a name?” Lyn asked.  
  
“Yeah, has been a thorn for travelers here for a few weeks now, and we named her, so it would be easier to file reports on her,” Omar said, amusement clear on his face, and shook his head. “Well done on that front, glad to be rid of her.”  
  
“There wasn’t much in her nest though.”  
  
The ranger shrugged. “Who knows, sometimes they bury or break stuff. Or just throw it away. Could have dropped it on the way.”  
  
“We did find this though,” Cassie said and pulled out the premium ball. “In her nest, I mean. It was there next to my pokecom.”  
  
Jackson frowned as took the premium ball and pulled out a pokedex and Lyn could see that it was green and a bit bigger than the ones given to trainers. He scanned the premium ball and after a few seconds, the device finished the scan with a beep.  
  
“A staraptor belonging to one Aaron Vittel from Celadon. Reported missing just two days ago, apparently snatched by our friend Gundel.”  
  
_I think I’m going to keep that name._  
  
“We won’t be going to Celadon for at least a week though, we’re still on patrol and have to go to Saffron afterwards anyway.” Omar stood up and brushed the dirt and grass from his knees with a gloved hand. “But I guess it can’t be helped, we should get a message to the pokecenter in Celadon though, so they can notify that Vittel guy.”  
  
Jackson hummed, in thought as he looked at the premium ball in his ball. “What are your names?” he asked the two sisters.  
  
“Lyn and Cassie Raine,” said Cassie.  
  
“Which way are you going?”  
  
“Celadon is next.”  
  
“Well, seems to me that this works for everyone involved. You two drop the staraptor at the pokecenter of Celadon and we forget the whole leaving an unattended fire in the middle of a forest thing.” He was grinning, which Cassie returned.  
  
“Why not, not exactly a lot of extra work.”  
  
Jackson handed the premium ball back to her. “We will be calling the pokecenter so that they will know who to expect. There will probably be a small reward, there usually is but don’t hope for too much. Should be a bit of money or a useful item or anything.”  
  
_Of course, that also means that they will know who we are and that we kept a pokemon belonging to another trainer if we don’t show up there in the next few days._  
  
“Yeah, sorry for the fire.”  
  
“Nothing bad happened, but it could have. I know pokecoms are expensive but show more caution. That said, good luck to you two.”  
  
“Thanks,” Cassie said, just as Rush jumped from her shoulder to the ground and took his place next to the fire, right after shooting a disdainful look at the two pokemon of the rangers. “You take care as well.”  
  
Jackson snorted and walked away, his tangela opening its eyes, jumping down from the bigger pokemon and waddling after him. Omar recalled his grotle and following his with a short wave which Lyn returned with a nod.  
  
“Well, that happened,” Cassie said after a minute of silence.  
  
“You think he’ll tell mother?”  
  
Cassie laughed, “Gods, I hope not, don’t think he got the connection though. Rangers are huge, can’t know everyone.”  
  
Lyn was glad about, she didn’t have that much contact with her mother anyway and she would hate one of those few times being a lecture or frustration at showing such idiocy.  
  
“Anyway, this was enough excitement for me tonight,” Lyn said, as she grabbed a flask and took a few deep gulps of water. “I’m going to turn in, are you okay with putting out the fire before going to sleep?”  
  
“Sure thing, you knock yourself out, I’m going to write an update and take care of the remaining chores.”  
  
Just as Lyn had gotten comfortable in her sleeping bag, Cassie spoke up again.  
  
“I’m sorry Lyn, for today, but I’m really, really happy to be able to do this thing with you.”  
  
Lyn didn’t know what to say to that so she was silent for a few seconds, furiously thinking how to reply without sounding like an idiot. “Yeah, me too. Good night.”  
  
_And failed._  
  
“Good night,” came the muted reply, just as Empy snuggled into Lyn's side that was facing the open flame.  
  
It took an hour before sleep finally took Lyn.


End file.
